South Africa: SA's Land Crisis Is Ongoing, Not Historical

By Naledi Sikhakhane

The struggle for land in South Africa touches food security, identify and economic equality. For the Land and Accountability Research Centre (Larc), this reality is the driving force behind its work, including the uMhlaba Talks podcast.

Reverend Mbhekiseni Mavuso faced his community being forcibly removed from their ancestral land in the 1960s. Today, they face renewed threats from a proposed iron ore mine that could displace thousands, destroy fertile agricultural land and desecrate ancestral graves in Entembeni, Melmoth, KwaZulu-Natal.

Despite past resistance, the pressure to allow mining resurfaces, underscoring the real-world dangers faced by land defenders who often endure intimidation and threats. Mavuso was one of the guests of a podcast series, uMhlaba Talks.

The series was released mid 2025 and saw episodes pick up momentum on platforms such as TikTok in late 2025 and currently in 2026, with thousands of views and engagement on the topics.

One of the hosts of the uMhlaba Talks podcast, a project of the Land and Accountability Research Centre, argues that until South Africans stop seeing land purely as an economic asset and instead recognise it as central to identity, dignity and survival, the country will continue to battle profound social and political crises.

Thiyane Duda was also a researcher at the Land and Accountability Research Centre in the Department of Public Law at the University of Cape Town, he told Daily Maverick.

"The discourse around land in SA is...

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