Land Reform in South Africa

This short paper on land reform in the new democratic South Africa draws upon a number of sources:

	Issue 5 of GAP Matters (1^st Quarter, 1999),
	the OneWorld web site: www.oneworld.org/guides/land_rights/front/html and
	the South African White Paper on Land Reform.

EVEN NEWER - Farm Equity Schemes in South Africa

NEWER - The Pan-African Programme on Land and Resource Rights

NEW - The Communal Property Association Act of the Republic of South Africa

	The Strategic Goals and Vision of the Land Policy
	The Land Reform Programme
	Land Redistribution
	Land Restitution
	Land Tenure Reform
	Land and Culture
	Land for Food
	Further Information

The Strategic Goals and Vision of the Land Policy

Land, its ownership and uses, has always played an important role in shaping the political, economic and social processes at work in South Africa. Past land policies were a major cause of insecurity, landless citizens and poverty in the country. They also resulted in inefficient urban and rural land use patterns and a fragmented system of land administration. This has severely restricted effective resource utilisation and development.

Land is an important and sensitive issue to all South Africans. It is a finite resource that binds all together in a common destiny. As a corner stone for reconstruction and development, a land policy for the country needs to deal effectively with:

	The injustices of racially-based land dispossession of the past
	The need for a more equitable distribution of land ownership
	The need for land reform to reduce poverty and contribute to economic growth
	Security of tenure for all; and
	A system of land management that will support sustainable land use patterns and the rapid release of land for development.

The South African land policy has set out a number of key policy objectives. These are: the accessible means of recording land and registering rights in the property; establish the broad norms and guidelines for land use planning; effectively manage public land; and develop a responsive client friendly land administration service.

The Land Reform Programme

The central thrust of land policy is the land reform programme. This has three aspects: redistribution; land restitution; and land tenure reform.

Redistribution aims to provide the disadvantaged and the poor with access to land for residential and productive purposes. Its scope includes the urban and rural poor, labour tenants, farm workers and new entrants to agriculture.

Land restitution covers cases of forced removals that took place after 1913. This is being dealt with by a Land Claims Court and Commission established under the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994.

Land tenure reform is being addressed through a review of present land policy; administration and legislation to improve the tenure security of all South Africans and to accommodate diverse forms of land tenure, including types of communal tenure.

The government has adopted a two-pronged approach. On the one-hand, it is striving to create an enabling policy environment and on the other, it is providing direct financial and other support services.

The government’s vision of a land policy and reform programme is one that contributes to reconciliation, stability, growth and development in an equitable and sustainable way. It presumes an active land market supported by an effective and accessible institutional framework. In an urban context, the vision is one where the poor have secure access to well located land for the provision of shelter. The poverty focus of the land reform programme is aimed at achieving a better quality of life for the most disadvantaged.

Land reform is as a way of contributing to economic development by both giving households the opportunity to engage in productive land use and by increasing employment opportunities through encouraging greater investment. The government envisages land reform that results in a diverse rural landscape consisting of small, medium and large farms: one that promotes both equity and efficiency through a combined agrarian and industrial strategy in which land reform is the spark to the engine of growth.

Land Redistribution

The Land Reform Pilot Programme was launched in 1994 to develop equitable and sustainable mechanisms of land distribution in rural areas, as a kick-start to a wide reaching national programme. By April 1997 some 372 projects within and outside the pilot districts had been approved.

These involve 136,467 beneficiary households and 2.17 million hectares of land. Land has been transferred in 29 projects in terms of the Provision of Certain Land for Settlement Act 126 of 1993. Apart from the former, good progress has been made on the other initiatives in support of the land distribution programme.

Land Restitution

The Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994 was approved by Parliament in 1994 and the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights was established in 1995. Members of the Land Claims Court have been appointed and the court has made its first award. By April 1997 some 14,898 claims had been lodged, of which 12,130 were for urban land. Measures have been taken to speed up the processing of claims. These include the drafting of the Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill, 1997.

Land Tenure Reform

A legislative reform programme has been initiated. It includes the following:

	The Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act 3 of 1996 which provides security of tenure to labour tenants.
	The Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act 31 of 1996. This is a holding measure that protects the interests of people who have informal rights to land while an investigation is in progress.
	The Communal Property Association Act 28 of 1996. This provides a legal mechanism to accommodate the needs of those who wish to hold land collectively.
	Amendments to the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Acts 112 of 1991, to bring it into line with the government’s policy on the conversion of rights.

Land and Culture

It is very hard for people to maintain a collective sense of belonging if they do not have a sense of belonging to a place. One of the greatest social malaise’s that afflicts all corners of world in the late 20^th century is that of anomie: of not having a place, of not feeling that we belong.

Land For Food

In all areas of the world that have periodic starvation, the main component of famine is not an absolute shortage of food. There is always food for the people who are already well fed! But people who need the food can’t get it – even if they are the very people who work on the land. If they are working on someone else’s land, because they have no land rights, the food they produce may never go near their hungry family.

The new democratic South Africa seeks to address both this senses of ill-being and not belonging through ensuring land is for people’s well-being and nature.

Further Information

Those interested in obtaining further information should refer to Oxfam’s excellent African land rights web site: www.oxfam.org.uk/landrights/

or the OneWorld web site: www.oneworld.org/guides/land_rights/front/html

Land Reform in South Africa

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