Mpho Raboeane

Executive Director, Ndifuna Ukwazi
Mpho Raboeane is the Executive Director of Ndifuna Ukwazi, an urban land justice organisation based in Cape Town. With a background that bridges law, policy and community organizing, she has devoted her career to challenging systems that entrench exclusion and to opening up spaces where people can exercise their rights and voices freely. She is especially passionate about the struggle for just and inclusive cities. Mpho hopes her work contributes to a broader liberatory vision: one where cities reflect care, solidarity and opportunity, and where land is understood not as a commodity but as a shared resource for human flourishing. Previously she worked for the Legal Resources Centre when pursuing admission as an attorney and was part of the founding group who started a union – the Black Workers’ Forum. She holds a BCom in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and an LLB from the University of Cape Town.
Organization vision: To build a more equal, spatially just and inclusive city by protecting and expanding access to well-located land and affordable housing, for social, economic and racial justice.

Ndifuna Ukwazi advances urban land justice by combining community organizing, research, advocacy and litigation to challenge structural inequality and fuel systemic change. Their theory of change rests on the conviction that real leverage is created when the law, evidence-based research, media advocacy, and a movement of people converge to demand justice. This convergence creates the right conditions to shift policy, transform institutions, and defend constitutional rights. Their work is structured across three core programmes: broadening access to well-located land and affordable housing; resisting evictions and displacement; and security of tenure and supporting and strengthening the families, communities and movements most affected by urban inequality. They conduct rigorous research and feasibility studies, monitor housing policies, and engage in rights-based popular education to equip communities with the knowledge to assert their rights. They represent communities in urgent eviction cases and policy battles, and they mobilize collective action through campaigns, assemblies and direct engagement with decision-makers. By weaving together law, research, advocacy, community organizing, and storytelling, they not only resist ongoing erasure of land and housing rights but also build long-term capacity for change. Each intervention is rooted in solidarity with communities, ensuring their work responds directly to lived realities while advancing systemic transformation.