LAND STORIES Xolelwa Copiso -Imbokodo yase Esikhululweni (The Rock of Esikhululweni)


Production by JUSTIN CRONJE & TSWELOPELE MAPUTLA

Xolelwa Copiso is the Secretary General of the Development Committee in Esikhululweni, a settlement in Hogsback, Eastern Cape Xolelwa Copiso is the Secretary General of the Development Committee in Esikhululweni, a settlement in Hogsback, Eastern Cape. She has a passion for uplifting the lives of people in her community. Although Esikhululweni is stricken by poverty and hardships, Xolelwa is determined to make it a better place. She has a passion for uplifting the lives of people in her community. Although Esikhululweni is stricken by poverty and hardships, Xolelwa is determined to make it a better place.

This film is one of six videos made to illustrate a range of typical Land struggles that people living in the Thyme River catchment in South Africa have experienced during their lifetimes.
A common feature in each of the six participants’ stories is the role and impact of insecure tenure on their own lives, their families and their communities. Although each family now has a ‘secure’ home, many of the participants have moved several times – between farmland, communal land, land owned by employers and as well as absentee landowners.
Despite the right to housing being enshrined in the South African Constitution, 24 years after the advent of democracy, the families have yet to secure formal tenure. Each of the stories highlight aspects of the ongoing struggle to ‘live a good life’ – many gained access to electricity for the first time in late 2017. The films provide a digital record for the young people in each family of how their parents struggled to have a permanent place called home.

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