ABSTRACT
Land is a finite resource for sustainable livelihoods of the general population and the foundation of South Africa’s diverse culture. However, throughout our South African history, the land question has been a contentious, sensitive and emotive issue ever since the inception of the colonial era, thus the democratic dispensation views the Land Reform Programme as a panacea to the historical inequalities with regard to land ownership, distribution and forced removals, as well as viewing it as a tool to achieve socio-economic and political stability.
Since globally, land reform arose mainly because of inequalities of resources or to control resources,the overall view in South Africa is that land ownership can be optimally utilised for redistribution, reform, effective administration and for developmental purposes; and, as a result, change in land ownership, use and control has become imperative.
This study seeks to evaluate the democratic government’s intervention and the efficacy of the urban tenure reform programme in dealing with unequal and racial ownership of urban land in the old(pre 1994) former Black urban settlements such SOWETO, by investigating legislation and policy related to land ownership, and the current tenure and ownership system and status in both Zola and Orlando.Document analysis is a form of qualitative research used by the researcher to provide voice and meaning around an assessed researched topic, and findings further reveal the challenges faced in the implementation or execution phaseof the urban tenure remedial programme, and the current status and the remedial programme benefits, while recommendations are made in terms of systems and processes in order to accelerate service delivery, and with the emphasis of the importance of capacity building for stakeholders, including the benefiting community. misperception that the Land Reform Programme only relates to the “rural” areas and “the transfer of agricultural land from dissertation investigates the evolution of land tenure or ownership rights in the former black urban human settlements, looking at the discriminatory laws and policies of the past, consequent political resistance and other milestones as well as the democratic government’s interventions in this regardwhites to
Clarification of Concepts/Terminology
- Adjudication Hearing: A quasi-judicial forum for the resolution of ownership or housing disputes.
- Council-/State-owned houses: Houses built and operated by local councils and rented out to primarily working class people.
- Housing Bureau: Management committee comprising of officials from the City of Johannesburg and the Provincial Department responsible for overseeing the transfer of state-owned houses from the state to individual owners.
- Land Tenure Rights: Real land rights that entail outright ownership for which a full title deed is registered.
- Local Committee: Community representatives who serve as “eyes and ears” of the community in the transfer of housing projects.
- Soweto: An abbreviation for South Western Townships, it is an urban settlement within the municipal jurisdiction of the City of Johannesburg, and predominantly inhabited by blacks who reside in council-owned rental properties.
- Title Deed: A legal document used to prove ownership for a piece of land or property, and includes the property description.
- Township: In the South African context, the term is roughly used in reference to an urban settlement for non-whites (Africans, Indians and coloureds), built on the periphery of towns and cities.
- Transfer of housing: Process whereby tenants of state-owned housing are financially assisted to acquire full ownership rights of properties they have occupied prior to the new dispensation.
- Urbanisation: A process whereby a population shifts from rural to urban areas in search and pursuit of socio-economic opportunities, such as employment, health and social facilities.
