Description
Book SynopsisWho controls the land and minerals in the former Bantustans of South Africa - chiefs, the state or landholders? Disputes are taking place around the ownership of resources, decisions about their exploitation and who should benefit. With respect to all of these issues, the courts have become increasingly important.
The contributors to
Land, Law and Chiefs in Rural South Africa capture some of these intense contestations over land, law and political authority, focussing on threats to the rights of ordinary people. History and customary law feature strongly in most disputes and succession to chieftaincy is also frequently disputed. Judges have to make decisions in a context where rival claimants to property or office assert their own versions of history and custom. The South African constitution recognises customary law and the courts are attempting to incorporate and develop this branch of jurisprudence as 'living customary law'. Lawyers, community leaders and academics are called on to assist in researching cases around restitution, land rights and customary law.
The chapters in this collection discuss legal cases and policy directions that have evolved since 1994. Some chapters analyse the increasing power of chiefs in the South African rural areas, while others suggest that the courts are giving support to popular rights over land and supporting local democratic processes. Contributors record significant pushback from groups that reject traditional authority. These political tensions are a central theme of the collection and thus serve as vital case studies in furthering our understanding of rights and restitution in South Africa.
Table of Contents
- Preface - William Beinart
- Introduction Land, Law and Chiefs: Contested Histories and Current Struggles - William Beinart
- Chapter 1 Constitutional Court Judgements, Customary Law and Democratisation in South Africa - Geoff Budlender
- Chapter 2 Was 'Living Customary Law' There All Along? - Derick Fay
- Chapter 3 When Custom Divides 'Community': Legal Battles over Platinum in North West Province - Sonwabile Mnwana
- Chapter 4 Chiefs, Mines and the State in the Platinum Belt: The Bapo-ba-Mogale Traditional Community and Lonmin - Gavin Capps
- Chapter 5 Grave Sites and Dispossession in Mpumalanga - Dineo Skosana
- Chapter 6 The Abuse of Interdicts by Traditional Leaders in South Africa - Joanna Pickering and Ayesha Motala
- Chapter 7 Resisting the Imposition of Ubukhosi: Contested Authority-Making in the Former Ciskei - Thiyane Duda and Janine Ubink
- Chapter 8 Black Landlords, Their Tenants and the Natives Administration Act of 1927 - Khumisho Moguerane
- Chapter 9 Customary Law and Land Ownership in the Eastern Cape - Rosalie Kingwill
- Chapter 10 A History of Communal Property Associations in South Africa - Tara Weinberg
- Chapter 11 'This is Business Land': The Hlolweni Land Claim, 1983-2016 - Raphael Chaskalson
- Chapter 12 Restitution and Land Rights in the Eastern Cape: The Hlolweni, Mgungundlovu and Xolobeni Cases - William Beinart
