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.

Phuhlisani NPC is a Public Benefit Organisation approved by the South African Revenue Service. Our PBO number is 9300068708 

Our learning spiral

In total the six Phuhlisani NPC Directors have accumulated almost two centuries of work experience. We  have our roots in the diverse South African Civil Society Organisation (CSO) and land research sectors. 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 democratic and developmental state. Others are thought leaders within research institutes at tertiary institutions, or have worked in both the national and local spheres of government 

In 2003 the founder members of Phuhlisani Solutions set out to establish 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 Betrayal of the Promise (2017) report and subsequent analysis has confirmed, 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 reflected the increasing frequency with which we completed research, developed 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 also been increasingly co-opted to become a vehicle for accumulation 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 through practical engagement on the ground. 

We have recently been joined by three new directors Sithandiwe Yeni, Prof. Sonwabile Mnwana and Lauren Waring whose profiles appear below. The critical thinking and diverse experience accumulated by our new Directors will assist Phuhlisani NPC to refine our strategic direction and deepen our effectiveness. 

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.

Sithandiwe Yeni

Sithandiwe has been deeply embedded in civil society organisations focused on the related issues of land, food and water. She is currently completing her doctorate in Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the Western Cape which she has been doing fulltime.
She was previously the national coordinator of Tshintsha Amakhaya (TA), a civil society alliance of nine organizations for land, water and food justice in rural South Africa for two years and prior to that the Rural Transformation Project Manager at Oxfam South Africa, a researcher at the Land And Accountability Research Centre, and a development facilitator at the Surplus People Project for seven years.
She has a Master of Arts: Agrarian and Environmental Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University (Netherlands) and a Master of Philosophy: Land and Agrarian Studies from the Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the Western Cape.
She is currently on the boards of the following organisations: Commodity Frontiers editorial board; Biowatch and Triangle Project.

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.

 Prof. Sonwabile Mnwana

Sonwabile is currently Professor of Sociology specialising  in Development Studies at Rhodes University. He research focus is on rural inequality, struggles over land and mining revenues, livelihoods and socio-economic rights in the face of adverse multiple impacts of extractive expansion.
He is a senior academic and public intellectual having been an associate professor and Head of Department of Sociology at the University of Fort Hare, East London, and the Deputy Director and senior researcher at the Society, Work and Politics Institute (SWOP), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
​Besides having published widely, he has received several research fellowships and awards, including a prestigious 2019 visiting fellowship at Stellenbosch’s Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS), at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH), University of Edinburgh (UK), the Wits Exceptional Research (2016), and the Vice Chancellors Award for Research Excellence – UFH (2019 and 2021).
Whilst an academic, he also uses his research to engage in social justice causes. He has contributed to several advocacy issues, particularly on land rights and rural communities inter alia as an expert in the Land Working Groups of the High-Level Panel on Land Policy in South Africa (2016-2017) chaired by Former State President Kgalema Motlanthe.
In addition to his PhD in Social Sciences (Sociology) from the University of Fort Hare, obtained in 2012, Sonwabile has a Masters and a BEd Hons in Education from Fort Hare; a Secondary Teachers Diploma from Dr Rabusana College and a Project Management Certificate from Rhodes University. 

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.

Lauren Waring

Lauren is currently the Executive Director: Planning, Development and Human Settlements in the George Municipality and has been in the position since May 2021. She was previously Executive Director: Planning and Development, Drakenstein Municipality for five years and in the position of the Acting Municipal Manager of Knysna Municipality for three years between 2011-2014. Prior to joining local government, she was centrally involved with the restitution of land rights as a Deputy Director: Regional Land Claims Commission, as the Head of the District Six Land Claims Unit for two year and as a staff member in the then Department of Land Affairs  responsible for the management and implementation of various restitution and redistribution land reform projects.
 She has significant experience in senior management positions and in the complexity of the planning and development components in local government while at the same time has a keen understanding and experience in trying to facilitate success in land reform and particularly in restitution.
 She has a Masters degree in Town and Regional Planning from the University of Stellenbosch, a Project Management certificate and a Public Finance Management certificate from the University of Stellenbosch Business School. More recently she has undertaken a range of modules in a Municipal Finance Development Program at the University of Pretoria and in a Financial Management Program at the University of Stellenbosch. 

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 works as a part-time researcher for the Land Portal researching and compiling African country profiles.
​He holds a PhD awarded by the University of Cape Town.  

---