The African Tax Institute (ATI) at the University of Pretoria celebrated its tenth anniversary in July 2017. To celebrate this milestone, it hosted a dinner for representatives of the university's management, the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, as well as the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States on 26 July 2017. As the Lincoln Institute has been instrumental in the institutionalisation of the ATI, the guest of honour at this dinner was Kathryn Lincoln, the chairperson of the Lincoln Institute's board.      

From left to right: Prof Elsabé Loots (Dean: Faculty of EMS), Prof Stephanie Burton (Vice Principal: Research), Ms Joan Youngman (Senior Fellow: Lincoln Institute), Ms Katie Lincoln (Chair: Lincoln Institute Board), and Prof Riël Franzsen (Director: ATI)

Apart from the Lincoln Institute's support for the institutionalisation of the ATI, it also funded a collaborative research project on property taxation in Africa, which commenced in 2007. This joint venture involved 15 research fellows hailing from 13 African countries.

This dinner was also the perfect occasion to launch the scholarly book Property Tax in Africa – Status, Challenges, and Prospects, edited by Riël Franzsen and William McCluskey of the ATI. This book, published by the Lincoln Institute, constitutes an important outcome of the joint venture between the two institutes. It provides the first comprehensive overview of property tax systems in Africa and includes a general overview of the policy and administrative issues regarding recurrent property taxes in Africa, but also includes 29 country and 4 regional studies, as well as a discussion of the future prospects of this tax in an African context.

From left to right: Prof William McCluskey (Extraordinary Professor: ATI), Ms Kathryn Lincoln (Chair: Lincoln Institute Board), Prof Stephanie Burton (Vice Principal: Research), and Prof Riël Franzsen

Although the focus of this function was on the collaboration over the past ten years and the official launch of the book in Africa, Kathryn Lincoln made it clear in her brief address that it was by no means the end of the collaboration between the Lincoln Institute and the ATI.