Undoing the injustices of the past: restitution of rights in land in postapartheid South Africa, with special reference to the North-West Province

This article is concerned with the important question of the restitution of rights in land to individuals and communities, dispossessed of such rights under racially discriminatory laws. These laws were buttressed by policies such as “the clearance of blackspots” and “poorly situated areas”, “betterment schemes” and “cancellation of title deeds”. In the process some three and a half million people were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands leading to the notorious statistics where the white population, comprising less than 20% of the country’s total population, owned 87% of the land, leaving 13% to the black peoples. In what is now the North-West Province, the land question was further complicated by the discredited policy of Bantustans. Under this policy, Botswana people were forcibly removed from their ancestral land to form the socalled homeland of Bophuthatswana. South Africa’s history of conquest and dispossession, of forced removals and a racially-skewed distribution of land resources has left a painful legacy. This paper examines the achievements and challenges of the land restitution process since its inception in 1994. It is evident from the discussion below that while the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights has achieved some notable results in this complex and dynamic process, much remains to be done in addressing and overcoming an intricate web of challenges in the delivery process. It is hoped that this discussion will make a modest contribution to the on-going debate about reconciliation, reconstruction and development in post-apartheid South Africa

Theileria parva seroprevalence in traditionally kept cattle in southern Zambia and El Niño

East Coast fever (ECF), a tick-borne disease of cattle, is a major constraint to livestock development in Africa in general and southern Zambia in particular. Understanding the transmission patterns of this disease complex is very difficult as shown by previous studies in southern and eastern Zambia due to the interplay of risk factors. In this long-term study, we investigated whether global weather changes had any influence on disease transmission in traditionally kept cattle in southern Zambia. The results from this study show a strong association between increased Theileria parva contacts in cattle and the presence of El Niño, clearly linking a simple climatic index to disease outbreaks. We therefore propose that in southern Zambia, the simple and readily available multiple El Niño Southern oscillation index (MEI) ranks be used in planning ECF control programmes and early warning

Comparison of manual and homogenizer methods for preparation of tick-derived stabilates of Theileria parva: equivalence testing using an in vitro titration model

Theileria parva sporozoite stabilates are used in the infection and treatment method of immunization, a widely accepted control option for East Coast fever in cattle. T. parva sporozoites are extracted from infected adult Rhipicephalus appendiculatus ticks either manually, using a pestle and a mortar, or by use of an electric homogenizer. A comparison of the two methods as a function of stabilate infectivity has never been documented. This study was designed to provide a quantitative comparison of stabilates produced by the two methods. The approach was to prepare batches of stabilate by both methods and then subject them to in vitro titration. Equivalence testing was then performed on the average effective doses (ED). The ratio of infective sporozoites yielded by the two methods was found to be 1.14 in favour of the manually ground stabilate with an upper limit of the 95% confidence interval equal to 1.3. We conclude that the choice of method rests more on costs, available infrastructure and standardization than on which method produces a richer sporozoite stabilate