BA (Hons) (UKZN), MA (UKZN), PhD (Rhodes)

Dr Lalitha (Lali) Naidoo is Director of the East Cape Agricultural Research Project (ECARP), a Makhana-based, non-profit organisation working in the field of agrarian political economy and supporting and empowering rural communities. ECARP works with farm workers, farm dwellers and small-scale farmers in the Sarah Baartman and Amathole municipal districts in the Eastern Cape. Her research focuses on working conditions among farm workers, farm dweller and small-scale farmers in South Africa, with a particular focus on the Eastern Cape. Her research interests also include minimum wages, labour market, labour process, labour law, rural livelihoods and social movements. She is centrally involved in ECARP’s work aimed at fostering alternative forms of organisations among unorganised and/or weakly-organised farm workers, dwellers and small-scale farmers. As of December 2018, these structures covered around 500 farms, with 83 farm committees, 16 area committees and a rural district committee, called Phakamani Siyephambili. Comprising farm and area committees and 12 small-scale farming sites, Phakamani Siyephambili brings together over 2,000 active farm committee members and 735 small-scale farmers and micro-food producers using agro-ecological practices in the Sarah Baartman and Amatole municipal districts. Lali’s other area of interest is around food sovereignty, agro-ecological farming and democratic food systems. Besides extensive work in the South African policy sphere, she is also widely published.

Selected Publications

Naidoo, L, Klerck, G and Helliker, K. 2016. “Resisting Accumulation by Dispossession: Organisation and Mobilisation by the Rural Poor in Contemporary South Africa.” In Kapoor, D (ed.). Against Colonization and Rural Dispossession: Local Resistance in South and East Asia, the Pacific and Africa. London: Zed Books.

Naidoo, L. 2011. “Social Mobilisation of Farm Workers and Dwellers in the Eastern Cape.” In Helliker, K and Murisa, T (eds.). Land Struggles and Civil Society in Southern Africa. New Jersey: Africa World Press.

Naidoo, L. 2011. “Poverty and Insecurity of Farm Workers and Dwellers in Post-apartheid South Africa.” In Hebink, P and Shackleton, C (eds.). Reforming Land and Resource Use in South Africa: Impact on Livelihoods. London: Routledge.

Klerck, G. and Naidoo, L. 2011. “Minimum Wages for Farm Workers.” In Ruiters, G (ed.). The Fate of the Eastern Cape: History, Politics and Social Policy.  Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.

Naidoo, L, Klerck, G and Manganeng, L. 2007. “The ‘Bite’ of a Minimum Wage: Enforcement of and Compliance with the Sectoral Determination for Farm Workers.” South African Journal of Labour Relations, 31 (1).

Naidoo, L and Manganeng, L. 2005. “Can a Law Determine a Better Living?” South African Labour Bulletin, 29 (5).

Naidoo, L. 2004. “Integrating Land Rights, Tenure Security and Sustainable Rural Development: Farm Workers and Dwellers in the Makana District, Eastern Cape.” In Roth, M et al (eds.). National Land Tenure Conference Finding Solutions, Securing Rights. Durban: Butterworths.

Klerck, G and Naidoo, L. 2003. “In Search of Greener Pastures: Trade Unionism in the Agricultural Sector.” In Barchiesi, F. and Bramble, T. (eds.). New Perspectives on South African Trade Unionism. London: Ashgate.

Selected Policy Submissions

ECARP Submission on Land Expropriation without Compensation. 2018. ECARP submission to the Joint Constitutional Review Committee.

ECARP Submission on the review of the Minimum Wage. 2012. ECARP submission made to the Department of Labour.

ECARP Submission on the National Agro-ecology Strategy. 2012. ECARP submission made to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

ECARP SD14 Submission on the review of the Minimum Wage. 2011. ECARP submission made to the Department of Labour.

ECARP Submission on the Green Paper on Land Reform. 2011. ECARP submission made to the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.

ECARP SD13 Submission on the review of the Minimum Wage. 2008. ECARP submission made to the Department of Labour.

ECARP Submission on Farm workers Employment Conditions. 2004. ECARP submission made to the Eastern Cape Department of Labour.

Selected Unpublished Reports (Lead Author)

ECARP. 2018. Towards Decent Work in Agriculture.  Case Studies of Working Life and Living Conditions of Farm Workers and Dwellers in Sarah Baartman and Amathole Districts in the Eastern Cape.

ECARP. 2013. Continuity and Change: Personal Accounts of Five Farm Dwellers on the Impact of Social, Political and Economic Changes on Farm Workers and Dwellers.

ECARP. 2012. Organising Farm Workers and Dwellers: Grassroots Mobilisation.

ECARP. 2011. Labour Dossier May 2011: Fort Beaufort, Adelaide and Bedford.

ECARP. 2011. Labour Dossier May 2011: Sunday’s River Valley.

ECARP. 2011. The Impact of Global Warming and Climate Change on Small-scale Farmers. 

ECARP. 2005. Land Campaign Dossier. Presented to the Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Labour in Makana.

ECARP. 2005.  Advancing Positive Land Rights and Sustainable Livelihoods for Rural Communities in the Eastern Cape. Submission made to the Eastern Cape Provincial Department of Land Reform in Grahamstown.

Last Modified: Wed, 12 May 2021 10:43:30 SAST