About
Leap's institutional arrangement
Leap has a small membership that make up a Core Team, and a number of partners. The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) provides an institutional base for Leap in its Johannesburg office. Leap and the LRC have worked together for many years and see their work as complementary. We share concerns about tenure security for the poor and about the legal, policy, institutional and programming frameworks in South Africa. In 2005, when MIDNET, the network that housed Leap in KwaZulu Natal, closed down, LRC agreed to provide an institutional home for Leap
Leap provides an institutional umbrella for new or existing projects that contribute to Leap’s aims, objectives and methodology on secure tenure for the poor. Leap is thus able to function within a flexible and dynamic set of co-operative arrangements, such as partnerships, collaborations or associations. Leap projects flow from existing or proposed study sites, usually where an NGO or research agency is already engaged with development or policy issues. The benefit of this approach is that Leap provides a focal point around land tenure in situations where an existing dynamic for civil society-government engagement already exists. Leap provides action research criteria and the opportunity for learning and engagement across a comparable spectrum of study sites and themes. The following projects are active, some in the field and others pursuing funding or partnerships:
- The Leap - Association for Water and Rural Development (AWARD) partnership is exploring the articulation between water catchment management, land tenure and local authority with the purpose of supporting more sustainable community based governance systems in the wetlands of the Sand River Catchment, straddling Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces. The project is piloting its research in one of the wetlands catchment villages, Craigieburn (in Mpumalanga Province). The project is funded by the IDRC. 2006-2009
- The Leap - CAP Mdukatshani Partnership Project is entitled “Imithetho yomhlaba yase Msinga” (“Land Laws of Msinga Project”) examining traditional practices and rural development in Weenen/Msinga area (a ‘deep’ rural area) in Kwazulu-Natal. The main objective of the project is to look at the laws around land and natural resources and the disjuncture between local law and practice and national laws around land and local authority, all of which are in the process of change. The project is funded by Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. 2007-2009
- The Leap - Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) collaboration explores issues of tenure security for the poor in a context of inner city regeneration and evictions. CALS with the Wits Law Clinic have successfully prevented the eviction of a group of residents in San Jose, a building in Berea, Johannesburg. In 2007 and 2008 Leap members are working with CALS on the housing and community process dimensions of the project which include negotiations with the City of Johannesburg to reach a settlement agreement; interim measures to make the building habitable; short term, temporary accommodation once the relocation occurs; and permanent accommodation options.
- The Leap - Zibambeleni collaboration which aims to evaluate the problems besetting development on 15 farms that were transferred to land reform beneficiaries. The partnership aims to focus on the land tenure framework - to identify the particular tenure-related problems in policy and execution of land reform that contribute to the failure in agricultural and infrastructural development and service delivery. The project site is situated in the Muden area, Umvoti Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal. It is being funded by the International Land Coalition (ILC). 2006 - 2009
- The Leap – Legal Resources Centre (LRC) Project which aims to examine, analyse and critique issues around titling and registration based on two freehold sites in the Eastern Cape, viz. Fingo Village (urban) and Rabula (rural). The aim of the project is to document existing practices regarding ownership and succession of property and to identify the disjuncture between local practices and the formal land registration system. The project will evaluate the current policy framework, including the Land Titles Adjustment Act, No 111 of 1992 and the Upgrading of Land Rights Act, No of , and identify the inadequacies of these in providing remedies in these and other comparable cases, as well as the mismatches between local practice and the common law. The project intends to explore the use of digital technology as a tool for recording land rights.
- Leap - Urban Land Mark (ULM) collaboration. Not a project as such, but an interactive relationship to compare the findings coming to light in ULM’s case studies with case study material emerging from the other Leap projects. A possible further partnership to evaluate titling and registration in an urban context such as Johannesburg is being explored.