Communal land reform and tourism investment in Namibia's communal areas: a question of unfinished business?

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter John Massyn
Keyword(s):  
Land Reform ◽  
Unfinished Business ◽  
Communal Land ◽  
Communal Areas

scholarly journals Land Tenure Reform in Three Former Settler Colonies in Southern Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 87-110
Author(s):  
Chizuko Sato
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Tenure Reform ◽  
Traditional Leaders ◽  
Land Administration ◽  
Traditional Leadership ◽  
Communal Areas ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
Customary Land

AbstractThis study explores the challenges of land tenure reform for three former settler colonies in southern Africa–Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South Africa. While land redistribution programmes have been the primary focus of land reform for these countries since independence, land tenure reform for the inhabitants of communal areas is an equally important and complex policy challenge. Before independence, the administration of these areas was more or less in the hands of traditional leaders, whose roles were sanctioned by the colonial and apartheid authorities. Therefore, one of the primary concerns with respect to reforming land tenure systems in communal areas is related to the power and authority of traditional leaders in the post-independence period. This study highlights striking similarities in the nations’ land tenure reform policies. All of them gave statutory recognition to traditional leaders and strengthened their roles in rural land administration. In understanding this ‘resurgence’ or tenacity of traditional leadership, the symbiotic relationship between the ruling parties and traditional leaders cannot be ignored and should be problematised. Nonetheless, this chapter also argues that this obsession with traditional leadership may result in the neglect of other important issues related to land tenure reform in communal areas, such as the role of customary land tenureas social security.

Customary Law and Communal Property in South Africa

2018 ◽  
pp. 127-151
Author(s):  
Juanita M. Pienaar
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Communal Property ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Constitutional Right ◽  
Communal Areas ◽  
Traditional Authorities ◽  
Recent Policy

In the geographical areas forming the focus of this contribution, the traditional communal areas in former Bantustan and homeland areas in South Africa, communal ownership flows from the application of customary law, linked to the constitutional right to culture. Living customary law, embedded in communities, entails a dynamic system of land rights which are negotiated in line with particular needs. Recent policy and legislative developments, however, seem to bolster rights of traditional authorities, thereby impacting on land rights and effectively negating spontaneous negotiation. Conceptual clarification in this contribution embodies the complexity linked to communal property, specifically land, in light of the aftermath of apartheid, the commencement of an all-encompassing land reform programme and the operation of a dual legal system comprising customary law and Western-style legal paradigms. The challenges and opportunities for law reform are explored in this context of inter-connectedness of customary law and communal property.

scholarly journals Land Reform for a Landless Chief in South Africa: History and Land Restitution in KwaZulu-Natal

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Jill E. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Land Claims ◽  
Land Access ◽  
Reform Program ◽  
Kwazulu Natal ◽  
Communal Land ◽  
Land Restitution

Abstract Land claims and contests have been central to the construction of political authority across the African continent. South Africa’s post-apartheid land reform program aims to address historical dispossessions, but the program has experienced numerous obstacles and limits—in terms of pace, communal land access, productivity, and rural class divides. Drawing on archival and newspaper sources, Kelly traces how the descendant of a colonially-appointed, landless chief manipulated a claim into a landed chieftaincy and how both the chief and the competing claimants have deployed histories of landlessness and firstcomer accounts in a manner distinct to the KwaZulu-Natal region as part of the land restitution process.

scholarly journals The Mechanics of Intervention and the Green Paper on Land Reform

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 675
Author(s):  
Juanita M Pienaar
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
South African ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
National Development ◽  
Green Paper ◽  
Government Interventions ◽  
Land System ◽  
Communal Areas ◽  
Land Control ◽  
The Impact

The South African land control system has always, to some extent, been interfered with by government. Interventions in the course of the twentieth century in particular have resulted in an unequal, fragmented and diverse land control system. The law has been integral to this process. Since 1994, within a constitutional paradigm, interventions have been aimed at untangling the complex web of land-related measures so as to affect an equitable, co-ordinated and less complex land system. In this process law - including policy documents, plans, programmes and legislative measures - is again integral. The aim of this contribution is to ascertain whether, under the present government, the mechanics of intervention within the land reform arena have resulted overall in a sensible, workable framework within which challenges and weaknesses linked to land reform can be addressed effectively. In this regard both the structural and material dimensions of recent interventions are set out. Within this context the most recent intervention dealing with land reform in particular, the Green Paper on Land Reform of 2011, is placed in perspective and investigated further in light of the recent National Development Plan. Specific themes that have resonated in the recent mechanics of intervention, as well as the persons and communities who stand to be affected by them and the possible extent of their collective impact, are thereafter discussed. Due to the general vagueness of the Green Paper and its lack of depth and detail, the extent of the impact of the recent measures cannot be ascertained fully. The alignment of the new bodies and institutions proposed by and their contribution to actually addressing the challenges identified in the Green Paper are furthermore problematic and disappointing. Excluding vast portions of rural land comprising communal areas from all of the recent tenure-related measures is especially disconcerting. Clearly, huge gaps prevail in the resultant framework. Overall, the analysis of the recent structural and material dimensions of the recent mechanics underlines that further engineering is urgently required.

scholarly journals Gender Perspectives in Namibia’s Communal Land: Exploring Women’s Hindrances to Equitable Land Ownership

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110204
Author(s):  
Paulus Mwetulundila
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Land Ownership ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Government Interventions ◽  
Communal Land ◽  
The Status ◽  
Communal Areas ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
Communal Land Ownership ◽  
Legal Frameworks

Rural communities depend on land for socio-economic livelihoods. However, owning land remains a critical challenge in post-independence Namibia for women, despite institutionalised laws and policies designed to redress gender inequalities. This paper discourses on the hindrances to equitable communal land ownership in nine regions among women aged 18–60 years. Findings reveal a high perception among women themselves that women should own land in communal areas. The study concludes that the struggle for equitable land distribution is far from being over, despite various government interventions to address the status quo, and hence recommends the overhaul of existing legal frameworks.

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