Year: 2003
Type: other
Abstract: Tenure legislation is urgently necessary. There are serious problem in the communal \nareas in the ex-homeland provinces. These areas are characterised by severe poverty, \novercrowding and isolation from economic growth and opportunity. One of the issues \nthat inhibits development, is the lack of clarity about the status of land rights in \ncommunal areas. Who has what rights? Who must agree to changes? Who has the legal \nauthority to transact land? One of the consequences of this confusion is that the people \nwho actually use and occupy the land are often pushed aside and dispossessed when \ndevelopment and land transactions do take place. Others, purporting to act on their \nbehalf, take the money and run. \nThe underlying confusion about the status of land rights, has been exacerbated by the \nbreakdown of the land administration system in the ex-homeland provinces. In most \nprovinces nobody has the legal power to allocate land rights, and there is no budget or \nstaff to survey sites, maintain grazing camps, enforce dipping regimes or control the \nplunder of common property resources such as medicinal herbs and forests. Double and \ndisputed land allocations are the order of the day, illegal and informal land sales are \nincreasingly common and stock theft has reached alarming proportions. There is a \nserious and deepening crisis concerning land rights and land allocations in communal \nareas, which is impacting negatively on rural poverty. One of the inevitable results is that \ninvestors and formal and financial institutions avoid these areas. Local people find it \nalmost impossible to raise loans for businesses, or to access housing subsidies.
Author: Aninka Claassens
Language: English
Topic: Land Rights and Reforms
Subfield: Soil Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2939799141