About

Khanyisa Education and Development Trust [Khanyisa] is a land rights non-governmental organization whose operation is located in Gqeberha [formerly Port Elizabeth] in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Khanyisa is affiliated to a national collective –Trust for Community Outreach and Education.

History of Khanyisa Education and Development Trust

Khanyisa was established in 1990 initially to improve quality of education among black communities in rural and peri-urban areas surrounding Gqeberha. It was in the eve of democracy [in 1993] that the collective re-imagine its role in the post-apartheid South Africa and started embracing community development to be facilitated through properly capacitated Community Development Committees. It is this context that land was seen as central in the development of community in rural and in peri-urban areas and community development commitees developed into membership associations.

Khanyisa main thrust is to facilitate the establishment and strengthening of popular association [movement building] of small scale farmer’s associations to champion land and agraria transformation as well as farm workers and dwellers associations to addressing their working and living conditions on farms. These popular associations are a vehicle to address broader questions of marginalization, exploitation and injustices that are meted out to the poor.

The programmes of Khanyisa are: Movement building; Democratization of governance and Food sovereignty and climate change. These programmes are implemented in the peri-urban and on commercial farms in the Sarah Baarrtman District Municipality [Sundays River Valley, Kouga and Ndlambe] as well as in Nelson Mandela Municipality. Khanyisa works in partnership with other progressive organisations and campaigns in the Eastern Cape and beyond.

Our Team