OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT: WE ARE NOT ‘IN THIS TOGETHER’, POOR WOMEN NEED LAND JUSTICE!

An open letter from the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) to President Ramaphosa of South Africa, arguing that the government has failed to provide land justice for poor black women. The letter asserts that landlessness increases women's vulnerability to gender-based violence, food insecurity, and the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

• The South African government's efforts to combat women's landlessness have failed, with women constituting only 23% of land reform beneficiaries despite making up 43% of the large-scale agricultural labor force and 69% of small-scale farm workers.
• Land ownership for women in South Africa is precarious; the 2017 State Land Audit Report indicated that Africans overall own only 4% of the land in the country, while globally, women own between 1% and 2% of land.
• Landlessness exacerbates the vulnerabilities of poor black women during the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically regarding food security, the inability to socially distance in informal settlements, and a lack of housing options for those fleeing domestic violence.
• Women in South Africa face systemic exclusion from resources and rights due to unequal legal status tied to cultural practices, restrictive legislation, and patriarchal policy planning, which often reduces 'women's empowerment' to rhetorical claims without substance.

APA

Ndlovu, T. (2020). OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT: WE ARE NOT ‘IN THIS TOGETHER’, POOR WOMEN NEED LAND JUSTICE! Public Affairs Research Institute. https://pari.org.za/open-letter-poor-women-need-land-justice/

Chicago

Ndlovu, Thatshisiwe. OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT: WE ARE NOT ‘IN THIS TOGETHER’, POOR WOMEN NEED LAND JUSTICE! Public Affairs Research Institute, 2020. https://pari.org.za/open-letter-poor-women-need-land-justice/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Ndlovu |first1=Thatshisiwe |title=OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT: WE ARE NOT ‘IN THIS TOGETHER’, POOR WOMEN NEED LAND JUSTICE! |publisher=Public Affairs Research Institute |date=24 August 2020 |url=https://pari.org.za/open-letter-poor-women-need-land-justice/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{ndlovu2020open, author = {Ndlovu, Thatshisiwe}, title = {{OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT: WE ARE NOT ‘IN THIS TOGETHER’, POOR WOMEN NEED LAND JUSTICE!}}, publisher = {Public Affairs Research Institute}, year = {2020}, month = aug, url = {https://pari.org.za/open-letter-poor-women-need-land-justice/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }