Human needs, land reform and the South African Constitution

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Periodical article

Title:	Human needs, land reform and the South African Constitution
Author:	Hamilton, Lawrence
Year:	2006
Periodical:	Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies
Volume:	33
Issue:	2
Pages:	133-145
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	land reform constitutions 1996 property rights
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589340600884568
Abstract:	The poor delivery on land reform in postapartheid South Africa is best explained through a close analysis of the form and content of the Constitution of 1996. Within this progressive legal document lies the possibility for radical land reform but also that which currently hamstrings the process. The South African Constitution is self-defeating with regard to land reform because it conceives of the goals and means of land reform in the same conceptual language as is currently used to secure the private ownership of land, the language of inalienable rights. The article explains how and why this hinders the process of land reform and shows why rights-based constitutions in general are self-defeating. It suggests that a new conceptual language for politics based on the concept of human needs, and an alternative (needs-based) constitution, would put the premium on change and risk rather than safeguards and the status quo. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]