About Us
OUR STORY
Izwi Labantu Land & Agriculture Association is a dedicated arm and specialised entity under the Izwi Labantu Forum umbrella.
Izwi Labantu Forum (an established Non-Profit Company/NPC dedicated to fighting injustice, empowering voices, and advocating for societal development since 2018), representing the collective voice of South Africa’s emerging black farmers, farm workers, rural communities, and agricultural stakeholders, hereby establish the Izwi Labantu Land & Agriculture Association as a dedicated arm and specialised entity under the Izwi Labantu Forum umbrella.
Bringing The Love To Lawns Everywhere
The Voice of the People
This Association revives and honours the historic legacy of Izwi Labantu (“The Voice of the People”), a pioneering black-owned newspaper that served as a fearless platform for political expression, critiquing colonial land policies, opposing dispossession, and advocating for African rights and aspirations amid imperial expansion and early segregationist laws. South
Africa’s land history
Africa’s land history remains a wound of profound injustice: from colonial conquests starting in the 1650s, through the Natives Land Act of 1913 that confined Africans to just 7% of the land, to apartheid’s forced removals, Bantustans, and exploitative farm labour systems. Post 1994 restitution and redistribution efforts have been hampered by delays, corruption, bureaucratic obstacles, underfunding, and incomplete implementation, leaving millions without secure tenure, access to finance, markets, or safety.
Recent mobilizations
Recent mobilizations, including the Izwi Labantu Forum’s successful national farmers’ march to the Union Buildings on 29 January 2026, supported by the South African Communist Party (SACP), and the follow-up meeting on 6 February 2026 with government ministers and deputy ministers, have amplified these crises, slow land reform, lack of production support for emerging farmers, rural crime including farm murders and stock theft, threats to commodity sectors like sugar cane, and the marginalization of farm workers.
We continue this momentum
We continue this momentum with the upcoming second national farmers’ march on 27 February 2026. This Association emerges as a unified, grassroots movement to amplify the voice of the people (Izwi Labantu) in demanding justice, equity, and sustainable agricultural development, guided by the Freedom Charter’s call for land shared among those who work it, worker security, and shared national wealth.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
We draw inspiration from the Freedom Charter
adopted at the Congress of the People in Kliptown on 26 June 1955, which declared: “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white,” and affirmed that “our people have been robbed of their birth right to land, liberty and peace by a form of government founded on injustice and inequality.” The Charter’s visionary principles, rooted in non-racial democracy, equality, shared wealth, and land justice, remain a guiding beacon for our work. These enduring principles of the Freedom Charter inform our commitment to transforming South Africa’s agrarian landscape into one of justice, equity, and shared prosperity.
Ms Norma Mbatha
Executive Chairperson of Izwi Labantu Forum NPC, who will serve as President of the Association wing, the leader of Izwi Labantu Land & Agriculture Association. As the guiding leader of this movement, the President commits to principled, ubuntu-driven leadership, mobilizing communities, advocating for policy change, forging partnerships, and ensuring that every voice, especially those of farm workers and emerging farmers, is heard and acted upon.
