Land restitution in South Africa: At a crossroads? Event as iCalendar

Derick Fay | University of California, Riverside

This seminar will examine the uncertain future of land restitution in South Africa 25 years after the country’s first multi-racial elections, with national elections approaching in May 2019, and ongoing debate over expanding the state’s ability to expropriate land. Recent proposals to extend the deadline for claims appear unlikely to address challenges related to the volume of claims, conflict among claimants, and post-settlement support. Court judgments and independent evaluations have highlighted problems with the capacity, resources and accountability of the Land Claims Commission, while conflict and litigation are pervasive among land claimant communities.

This argument draws upon my testimony before the South African Parliament’s Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform in August 2018, and considers the 2017 Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Bill and the recommendations of the 2017 parliamentary High Level Panel. While recognising the electoral and grassroots political urgency that drives the Bill, I will argue that addressing existing claims, both nominally resolved and unresolved, and strengthening oversight mechanisms, should take precedent over expanding the programme.

Derick Fay is an associate professor at the University of California, Riverside. His research examines land reform and conservation in South Africa, grounded in ethnographic field research since 1998 at Dwesa-Cwebe, the site of one of the earliest land restitution claims involving a protected area. Trained as a sociocultural anthropologist, his work combines field work on this particular site with comparative analysis both within South Africa and internationally.