Land Rights and Democratisation: Rural Tenure Reform in South Africa's Former Bantustans

Ntsebeza, Lungisile

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Title:	Land Rights and Democratisation: Rural Tenure Reform in South Africa's Former Bantustans
Author:	Ntsebeza, Lungisile
Year:	2003
Periodical:	Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa
Issue:	52
Pages:	68-95
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	democracy land reform traditional rulers customary law land law bantustans Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Development and Technology Politics and Government Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Law, Human Rights and Violence
External link:	https://muse.jhu.edu/article/50359
Abstract:	More than 7 years after the first democratic election in South Africa in 1994, the conditions in the rural areas have remained unchanged. Land shortage and insecurity of tenure are in need of urgent attention. Land administration and management have in some areas virtually collapsed, while in others there is contestation as to who has the power of allocating land. At the heart of the problem is the unresolved issue of the roles, functions and powers of traditional authorities in South Africa's democracy. This paper deals with the processes undertaken by the Department of Land Affairs regarding land tenure reform in the former bantustans in post-1994 South Africa. It argues that the policies up to 1999 tended to marginalize the role of traditional authorities. However, traditional authorities were strongly opposed to any attempt to play with the powers they enjoyed under apartheid. Towards the end of 1999, the ANC showed a more accommodative stance towards traditional authorities. The response of the ANC-led government to the opposition of traditional authorities is ambivalent. There is a tension between trying to establish democratic and popularly accountable structures while continuing to recognize undemocratic and unaccountable ones. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]