About the Book
At present the land rights of millions of South Africans who hold land in the former homelands, in informal settlements and on transferred land are uncertain. The 1996 Constitution seemed to promise enhancement and upgrading of tenure, but this has not been effectively done. Those affected are amongst the protest and it is important that their rights are not shouldered aside. For such families, it is important that their land rights are a major asset that should be clearly recognised.
Under President Zuma however, rural policy seems to be heading in traditionalist direction, placing control over land in the hands of chiefs and further undermining the already insecure land rights of ordinary people. Chiefs, entrenched under apartheid, have presided over an economic decline in the former Bantusans. Beinart, Delius and Hay argue for a move away from communalist and traditionalist policies and for a focus on cementing individual and family land rights.
Land restitution, initiated in1994, was an important to the injustices of the apartheid era. But it was intended as a limited and short-term process-initially to be completed in five years. It may continue for decades, creating uncertainty and undermining investment into agriculture. The authors provides an analysis of what went so badly wrong, and warn that a new phase of restitute may ignite conflicting ethnic claims and facilitate elite capture of land and rural resources. While there are no quick fixes, the first phase of restitution should be completed and the policy then curtailed. Land reform urgently needs to prioritise employment creation, production and economic growth.
About the Author
William Beinart retired from the University of Oxford in 2015, where he was Director of the African Studies Centre and a fellow of St Antony�s College. He has researched and written extensively on South African rural issues and environmental history. His books include The Rise of Conservation in South Africa (2003), Environment and Empire (with Lotte Hughes, 2007), Prickly Pear: The Social History of a Plant in South Africa (with Luvuyo Wotshela, 2011), and African Local Knowledge and Livestock Health (with Karen Brown, 2013). He has worked on land reform planning and as an expert witness in land restitution cases.
Peter Delius retired as Professor and Head of Department of History, University of the Witwatersrand, in 2016. His research has focused on the history of the Pedi kingdom and his books include The Land Belongs to Us (1983), A Lion Amongst the Cattle (1997), Mpumalanga: An Illustrated History (with Michelle Hay, 2009) and Forgotten World: The Stone Walled Settlements of the Mpumalanga Escarpment (with Tim Maggs and Alex Schoeman, 2014). He has written extensively on rural issues and migrant labour, and in recent years has been deeply involved in research on land restitution in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, including work for the Land Claims Court.
Michelle Hay is an independent researcher and honourary fellow at the Centre for African Studies, Edinburgh University. Her PhD, entitled �South Africa�s land reform in historical perspective: Land settlement and agriculture in Mopani district, Limpopo, 19th century to 2015� provided a long-term analysis of what went wrong with land reform policy. She has years of experience working on land reform, has published a number of articles on land history and been involved, with Peter Delius, on projects for the Limpopo and Mpumalanga Land Claims Commissions, Land Claims Court, and provided input to the High Level Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and Acceleration of Fundamental Change.
