Surplus People Project

16/10/2026

16 October | International Day of Action for People’s Food Sovereignty

Food is a right. Land is power. Communities must have a say in how food is grown, produced and shared.

There can be no food sovereignty without land justice.

16/10/2026

People's Dialogue On Land
14- 16 October 2026

Equitable access to land requires collective action.

What does equitable access to land look like when communities are still waiting for land, farmers struggle to secure their livelihoods, and access to resources remains unequal?

The People’s Dialogue on Land in Citrusdal brings people together to share experiences, identify common struggles and strengthen collective demands for equitable land access.

Land justice cannot be achieved in isolation. It requires communities standing together, building collective power and holding decision-makers accountable for fair access to land and the resources needed to sustain livelihoods.

Our struggles are connected. Our voices are stronger together. Collective power is essential to advancing land justice.

14/10/2026

Learning with communities, building climate resilience from the ground up.

This week, SPP team members Siphelele Rose Ngema and Jasnine Anthony are in Lesotho participating in a five-day workshop on Participatory Assessment of Climate and Disaster Risk (PACDR).

Taking place in Ts’enekeng, in the village of Moreneng, the workshop brings community members together to identify local climate and disaster risks and develop practical adaptation strategies to strengthen their ability to respond to these challenges.

Through participatory exercises and collective learning, community members identify the risks they face and contribute to shaping responses grounded in their lived experiences and local knowledge.

For Siphelele and Jasnine, this is an opportunity to learn the PACDR tool first-hand and bring these skills and insights back to the communities SPP works alongside in South Africa.

Reflecting on the experience, they share:

“We are blessed to do this in such a beautiful community with beautiful, kind people.”

Community knowledge and collective learning are essential to building effective responses to climate change.

09/10/2026

COMMONAGE CAMPAIGN 2026 | CEDERBERG

This week, SPP was in the Cederberg, listening to small-scale farmers and communities about their experiences of commonage land.

Access to land is important, but access alone is not enough.

Farmers also need secure leases, water, infrastructure, sanitation, livestock security and meaningful support from their municipalities. Without these conditions, building a livelihood from the land becomes difficult.

Through the Commonage Campaign, we are documenting what communities are experiencing and supporting the call for commonage land to serve the people who depend on it.

These experiences form part of the ongoing work towards the 21 October Silent Protest Action.

Commonage land is about more than access. It is about livelihoods, food production and the conditions people need to farm with dignity.

01/10/2026

What does access to Commonage land actually mean for a farmer?

Commonage is municipal land that local people can use for farming.

For farmers, that can mean land to grow food, keep livestock, earn an income and build a livelihood through farming.

But what matters is not only whether Commonage land exists.

It is whether farmers can actually use that land to farm.

Across Cederberg, this is where the real questions begin:

Is there enough water?

Are lease arrangements workable?

Can livestock and equipment be protected?

Is there basic infrastructure?

Are farmers included in decisions about the land they use?

Land alone does not make a farm.

Commonage must come with the conditions that make farming possible.

That is why this campaign is looking not only at access to land, but at what farmers need in order to produce food, protect their livelihoods and keep farming.

COMMONAGE LAND = OUR LIVELIHOODS

Read more and follow the campaign:

https://spp.org.za/cederberg-commonage-campaign-2026

30/09/2026

COMMONAGE LAND = OUR LIVELIHOODS

Across Lamberts Bay, Elands Bay, Graafwater, Clanwilliam and Citrusdal, farmers are facing different barriers to farming on commonage land.

Their experiences are different, but they are connected by one shared need: a fair opportunity to farm.

The Cederberg Emerging Farmers Forum is calling for:

Equitable access to land. Water. Security. Fair leases. Accountability.

These are the conditions farmers need to farm, produce food and sustain their livelihoods.

Over the coming weeks, the Cederberg Emerging Farmers Forum, supported by Surplus People Project, will share the experiences, issues and demands of farmers across Cederberg.

Follow the campaign and read more here: https://spp.org.za/cederberg-commonage-campaign-2026

COMMONAGE LAND = OUR LIVELIHOODS

29/09/2026

A significant development in the Farm Worker Equity Schemes process (FWES).

The Department of Land Reform and Rural Development has approached the Special Investigating Unit regarding the Farm Worker Equity Schemes.

SPP and partners submitted a petition and presented it to Parliament in September 2025, calling for greater accountability and a fitensic audit around the schemes.

Read the latest from GroundUp below:

Nearly R700 million was disbursed to equity schemes. Most of them have failed.

24/09/2026

Heritage Day 2026 | Strengthening the Ties That Bind Us

Today, we reflect on heritage, not only as the history of a country, but as our connection to the land, food, knowledge, and communities that shape who we are.

We remember the knowledge passed down through generations, knowing when and how to plant, grow and harvest, caring for the soil, saving seeds, growing food, and working with the land.

Food was never just food. It carried memory, knowledge, and culture.

A recipe could hold generations of knowledge.

A seed could carry a history.

This knowledge is also part of food sovereignty, the right of communities to shape how food is grown, shared and accessed, and to protect the land, seeds, and knowledge that sustain them.

Through indigenous knowledge and agroecology, we can strengthen these connections and build food systems rooted in community knowledge and local needs.

This Heritage Day, let’s protect the knowledge, land, and seeds that sustain our communities and support food systems where people have greater control over what they grow, eat, and pass on.

Heritage is not only something we remember.
It is something we practise, protect, and pass on.

23/09/2026

𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗱𝘀.

Lia Wells spoke about the Clanwilliam collective of small-scale farmers whose application for state land was approved by the Housing Development Agency in 2023, but has still seen no movement.

“𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙮 𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙣𝙚𝙪𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙡.”

Read the full story by GroundUp: State land must be used for housing, activists say.

Applications were submitted three years ago, but vast areas of government-owned land remain unused