2023 is a watershed year for the Inyanda National Land Movement. Not only does 2023 mark its ten year anniversary, the movement is preparing for the elective conference in March 2023 in the Free State.

The Inyanda National Land Movement was established by ten organisations in 2013 as a rural movement to wage a national struggle for land and agrarian transformation. Since then, the movement has faced unstable social, political and economic conditions at both a local and national level which made mobilising very challenging. The Covid era weakened local movements and made organising work especially difficult. “The conditions presented challenges for grassroots mobilisation of the working class,” says the Chair of the Inyanda National Land Movement, Moipone Jwayi.

The movement undertook a period of self-reflection which resulted in a revival meeting hosted in November 2022 in Bloemfontein. The objectives of the meeting was to reflect on the state of the organisation, develop a response to the contextual challenges, build a layer of leadership and engage on future national campaigns. Jwayi explains that the meeting was meant to answer how to “rebuild Inyanda to be a vibrant and visible movement of the people. We looked at both the internal and external challenges to understand what is making the growth of the movement difficult and how to address this.”

This meeting affirmed that the movement is a feminist working class based collective of local movements involved in struggles for land access, agrarian transformation and equitable land ownership. “The movement must develop a plan to reflect on land issues that affects the disregarded black people in rural and urban areas, and those that have land which is not being fully utilized because of lack of resources and skills,” adds Rhulani Zitha from the Mopani Farmers Association.

The focus of rebuilding the movement includes developing a media strategy, political education, provide support for local programmes, mobilise youth and identify committed leadership. “We are hoping to have Inyanda youth in the conference. We want to see more youth because it is the youth who will drive the movement. The youth is willing to work,” says Asanda Magadla from Ilziwi Lamafama.

The resolutions from the November 2022 revival meeting are:

• Inyanda should have an operational and plan of its activities with resources
• Equal relationship and mutual respect in decision making
• Accountability and transparency, especially with regards to finances
• Elective conference must be held in March in the Free State
• A few comrades nominated to increase the capacity of the executive committee members
• The committee and the Trust for Community Outreach and Education’s (TCOE) Movement Building Stream should work together to implement decisions and campaigns
• The committee and Movement Building Stream should develop an implementation plan that speaks to the revival