About...Phuhlisani NPC aims to generate lasting solutions based on research, dialogue and reflexive practice. We strive to assist rural citizens to secure their rights and facilitate engagement to combat poverty, landlessness and tenure insecurity.
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Our learning spiral
In total the three Phuhlisani NPC Directors and Senior Associates have accumulated more than a century of work experience. We have our roots in the diverse South African Civil Society Organisation (CSO) sector. We have come a long way together but we still have much to learn - and unlearn.
Some of us were active in organisations from the 1970's through the 1980's and into the 1990's and the democratic transition. Some left the NGO sector to form organisations which aimed to tackle poverty, inequality and landlessness in co-operation with the newly established democractic and developmental state.
In 2003 the founder members of Phuhlisani Solutions set out to operate as a principled and ethical consultancy to provide a range of quality services and value for public money. However, as the years passed achieving these aims became more and more difficult, requiring us to ask hard questions about the social good of consulting in an environment characterised by an increasingly ineffective and anti-developmental state. As the recent Betrayal of the Promise (2017) report has analysed, it is now abundantly clear that over the years there have been systematic attempts to develop " a shadow state" for the benefit of "a constellation of rent seeking networks".
Our decision to step away from bidding for consultancy work followed the increasing frequency with which we completed research, plans and policy proposals commissioned by the state, only to see this work disappear without any evidence of follow through or implementation. Likewise many of the publicly funded research studies remained embargoed and their findings blocked from entering the public domain. In our view this has meant that land reform, land rights management, agricultural and rural development, livelihoods diversification, household food security and poverty eradication remain institutionally and practically fragmented, both in policy and in space. As recent research has shown the land reform programme has been co-opted to become a vehicle for the few rather than the many.
Following our decision to reconstitute ourselves as a non-profit company in 2015, we have returned to rethink our experience in the land sector in order to find fresh pathways. We seek to develop practical alternatives to failed policies and practices based on co-learning and action for change. In this we aim to strengthen essential literacies and capabilities required to meet South Africa's numerous challenges in the 21st century.
Some of us were active in organisations from the 1970's through the 1980's and into the 1990's and the democratic transition. Some left the NGO sector to form organisations which aimed to tackle poverty, inequality and landlessness in co-operation with the newly established democractic and developmental state.
In 2003 the founder members of Phuhlisani Solutions set out to operate as a principled and ethical consultancy to provide a range of quality services and value for public money. However, as the years passed achieving these aims became more and more difficult, requiring us to ask hard questions about the social good of consulting in an environment characterised by an increasingly ineffective and anti-developmental state. As the recent Betrayal of the Promise (2017) report has analysed, it is now abundantly clear that over the years there have been systematic attempts to develop " a shadow state" for the benefit of "a constellation of rent seeking networks".
Our decision to step away from bidding for consultancy work followed the increasing frequency with which we completed research, plans and policy proposals commissioned by the state, only to see this work disappear without any evidence of follow through or implementation. Likewise many of the publicly funded research studies remained embargoed and their findings blocked from entering the public domain. In our view this has meant that land reform, land rights management, agricultural and rural development, livelihoods diversification, household food security and poverty eradication remain institutionally and practically fragmented, both in policy and in space. As recent research has shown the land reform programme has been co-opted to become a vehicle for the few rather than the many.
Following our decision to reconstitute ourselves as a non-profit company in 2015, we have returned to rethink our experience in the land sector in order to find fresh pathways. We seek to develop practical alternatives to failed policies and practices based on co-learning and action for change. In this we aim to strengthen essential literacies and capabilities required to meet South Africa's numerous challenges in the 21st century.
Phuhlisani NPC Directors
David Mayson
David is the Phuhlisani NPC CEO. Previously he worked for over ten years for the Surplus People Project, a longstanding land sector NGO before founding Phuhlisani Solutions. He has a deep and applied knowledge of land and agrarian reform focusing on the integration of the various processes of land acquisition with institutional development, land rights management systems and agricultural development.
He has engaged with these issues at the practical level of implementation, at the research level, at a broader district planning level and at the level of writing strategy and policy. He also has extensive facilitation and project management experience. David has a Masters in Sociology from UCT. |
Ursula Smith
Ursula is Phuhlisani Finance and Administration Director. She provides logistical support across all aspects of Phuhlisani's operations. Prior to this Ursula worked for sixteen years at the City of Cape Town and nine years in the private sector with a leading training, consulting and skills development company.
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Dr Siyabulela Manona
During the course of his 30+ year career, which spans across NGOs, the private sector, and academia, in the land sector, Siyabu has made an enormous contribution to a range of research, policy assessment and formulation commissioned assignments for various government entities spanning across all three spheres of government (national, provincial and local). He has extensive experience and recognised as one of the leading land governance specialists in South Africa, with unique insights in land administration, land law, rural livelihoods, environment, forestry, land data information systems. He has skills in development research, transdisciplinary development practice, policy, planning, public process management Siyabu started his career in the land sector working for the Border Rural Committee (BRC) before co-founding Manona Field & Associates and Umhlaba Consulting Group. Since 2010 he has been involved in intricate land ground breaking, supporting Water Services Authorities in the Eastern Cape Province navigate around land tenure hurdles on their infrastructure projects. In 2022 he has migrated back to Phuhlisani on a full-time basis. He holds a PhD in Geography and is a research associate with Rhodes University. At Phuhlisani he is the Director: Land Governance Policy and Implementation, at Phuhlisani.
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Associates
Dr Rick de Satge is a Senior Research Associate and a former Director of Phuhlisani NPC. He has 40 years experience in the CSO and consulting spheres, working on land reform, land rights management, sustainable livelihoods, rural and urban development and popular education. He has worked extensively in South Africa, Zimbabwe and to a lesser extent in Botswana in a variety of development settings. He now focuses on Phuhlisani's land information website knowledgebase.land and linked Twitter account.
He holds a PhD awarded by the University of Cape Town. His thesis on the N2 Gateway mega-housing project in Langa was researched under the auspices of the Department of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics.
He holds a PhD awarded by the University of Cape Town. His thesis on the N2 Gateway mega-housing project in Langa was researched under the auspices of the Department of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics.