Dear Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development,

I am writing to the committee to add to the longstanding voices of the people living in communal areas that IPILRA need to be strengthened and made permanent.

This call is made with the observation and reality that us, people living in communal areas have only this legislation to refer to and rely on for protection of our rights to land.

We have been subjected to a lot of injustices, including illegal collection of levies, barred from traditional leadership spaces, intimidation, refusal to burry loved ones, and collusion between traditional leaders and outsiders against us, the poor residents.

The law-makers have been worryingly silent about strengthening and making this legislation, a call that was made by Civil Society Organisations, High Level Panel led by former President Kgalema Motlanthe and recently made by the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture. This call largely intend to achieve one thing: to protect the rural dwellers from the looting cabal and ensure inclusiveness in the socio-economic activities.

This issue cannot be left unattended, especially considering that traditional leadership system is an unbearable burden to rural dwellers, the country has high poverty level and is the most unequal society in the world

It is my hope that the committee will seriously consider this request and elevate it through the due process so that the rural poor can be free from subjection of injustices under the pretext of development.



Regards

Molatelo Mohale