Land reform needs policy overhaul

IT IS is heart-warming to see consultative public engagements between the government and stakeholders in policy making.

This ensures transparency and a sense of participatory inclusivity between the citizens and government in crafting the laws that govern the people.

The recent engagements between the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and traditional leader councils that represented the AmaNdebele aLebelo and the AmaNdebele akwaSokhulumi in Gauteng to deliberate on the land administration and land tenure reform systems in communal areas, has brought hope in refining the legislation that governs communal land in South Africa.

The current challenges on the communal land tenure system were entrenched through the system of apartheid by various legislation such as the Native Land Act of 1913.

However, in the new democratic South Africa, different land administration and land tenure reform legislations that affected communities mainly in communal areas have evolved and tried to redress the inequities in land ownership.

Despite these laws a series of challenges still exists, and a refinement of policy is needed in order to tailor-make a piece of legislation, within South African jurisprudence, that will govern communal land.

Currently, South Africa has a dual land administration system that is characterised by secure and insecure tenure systems.

Insecure tenure is largely administered by traditional leaders where land is either registered by traditional leaders or in the name of the state, or remains unregistered.

The insecure tenure system is protected by the Interim Protection of Land Right Act, and the right holders are issued with Permission To Occupy (PTO). This created a list of challenges that resulted in many people, approximately 16 to 17 million in communal areas, holding informal land tenure rights that are not recorded or registered.

Furthermore, approximately 2.7 million people live on land owned by others in commercial farming areas and are therefore vulnerable to evictions.

A policy overhaul is needed to address these challenges.

SMANGELE VUKEYA | Kempton Park