Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
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Online Publication Date: 19 Apr 2011

Compromises and Consequences: An Analysis of South Africa's Land Reform Program

Page Range: 155 – 169
DOI: 10.5555/arwg.1.2.70514vl61506u025
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Land dispossession underpins the land question in most of the former colonies and remains an issue, years after independence. In the case of South Africa, the combined effects of colonialism and apartheid rendered the majority of blacks landless through racially discriminatory laws. South Africa s negotiated settlement in the 1990s resulted in a constitution that provides an enabling environment in which the land question could be addressed. Compromises reached during the negotiations underscore the implementation of land reform. The purpose of this paper is to highlight some of the critical obstacles and problems facing land redistribution, restitution, and land-tenure reform. It argues that, while the property rights clause has been, and still is, considered the main obstacle to land reform, attention should also be paid to other sets of problems that have, and continue to, obstruct the process.

L'expropriation et la confiscation des terres sont au coeur de la question agraire dans la plupart des anciennes colonies et restent une question importante bien après l'indépendance. Dans le cas de l'Afrique du Sud, les effets combinés du colonialisme et de l'apartheid ont dépossédé la majorité des noirs de leurs terres, par le biais de lois raciales discriminatoires. L'arrangement négocié en Afrique du Sud dans les années quatre-vingtdix a résulté en une constitution qui pourvoit à un environnement permettant d'aborder la question agraire. Les compromis obtenus au cours des négociations insistent sur l'implémentation de la réforme agraire. Le but de cette communication est de souligner certains des obstacles et des problèmes les plus critiques à la redistribution des terres, aux restitutions et à la réforme des droits de propriété. Il y est démontré que, bien que la clause sur les droits de propriété a été et est toujours considérée comme l'obstacle majeur à la réforme agraire, nous devrions prêter plus d'attention à d'autres séries de problèmes qui ont défié et continuent de défier le processus.

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