Land Title in South Africa


Book Description

"This important new work is the first comprehensive survey of South African land law following the sweeping land reforms enacted during the past decade. It considers the substance and working of these reforms in the context of the pre-existing common law and legislation. An outline of the main features of the South African landholding before 1990 is followed in a detailed discussion of the established procedures of registration, prescription nad alternative forms of title. Registration in terms of the Deeds Registries Act remains a fundamental aspect of the acquisistion of real rights in land, and chapters dealing with these subjects constitute an authoritative source of reference for the property practitioner and conveyancer, the consultant and developer. They revise and update the corresponding chapters from The Acquisition and protection of Ownership (Juta, 1986) by the same author, which is relied upon by practitioners and the courts as a standard reference in the field of property law. The land reform programme is examined in the context of these pre-existing procedures, and with reference to the history of discriminatory landholding and constitutional property provisions. The result is a coherent account of land title in South Africa at the end of the 20th century."




Land Matters


Book Description

Why has land reform been such a failure in South Africa? Will expropriation without compensation solve the problem? What can be done to get the land programme back on track? In Land Matters, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi tackles the past, present and future of the land question in South Africa. Going back in history, he shows how Africans’ communal systems of landownership were used by colonial rulers to deny that Africans owned the land at all. He explores the effects of the Land Acts, Bantustans and forced removals. And he evaluates the ANC’s policies on land throughout the struggle years, during the negotiations of the 1990s, and in government. Land Matters unpacks the government’s achievements and failures in land redistribution, restitution and tenure reform, and makes suggestions for what needs to be done in future. The book also explores the power of chiefs, the tension between communal landownership and the desire for private title, the failure of the willing-seller, willing-buyer approach, women and land reform, the role of banks, and the debates around amending the Constitution. Steering clear of the simplistic and polarising terms of the land debate, Ngcukaitobi argues for a return to the nuanced constitutional requirements of justice and equity in South Africa’s land policy. Thoughtful and provocative, Land Matters sheds light on one of the most topical, complex and urgent issues in South Africa today.




Introduction to the Law of South Africa


Book Description

This title is part of an established Series which introduces various legal systems of the world. It provides an authoritative and accessible overview of the main branches of South African public, private and commercial law. Offering insight into the rich system of South African law, this title will be of particular interest to the international legal community. The South African legal system has not only developed fascinating mixtures of civil law and common law rules over more than a century, but has also experienced a post-apartheid South Africa. Of particular interest is the way in which so many branches of law have been infused by basic constitutional values. Many of the contributors have published work in their own fields and have considerable experience of presenting their subject matter in a broader comparative perspective. The succinct and balanced nature of the contributions makes this title attractive to a wide audience of academics, students and practitioners with an interest in this remarkable legal system.




Land, Law and Chiefs in Rural South Africa


Book Description

This edited collection illustrates contestations over land and political authority in South Africa’s rural areas, focusing on threats to popular rights and how they are being supported.




Southern African Development Community Land Issues


Book Description

This book constitutes volume one of a two volume examination of development community land issues in Southern Africa. In this volume, Ben Chigara undertakes a holistic inter-disciplinary evaluation of the legitimacy of colonial and emergent post-colonial rule property rights in affected States of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). It particularly focuses on intensifying litigation in national courts, the SADC Tribunal, and more recently the Washington based International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) regarding counter claims to title to property. The book examines cultural, economic and political drivers at the core of SADC land issues, focusing on their significance and potential to contribute to the discovery of a new, sustainable land relations policy that guarantees social justice in the distribution of all the advantages and disadvantages relating to the allocation and use of land. Chigara shows that persistent systematic administrative failures by pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial authorities have made for a very complex challenge that requires Solomonic tools that neither the Courts alone, nor human rights centric morality alone could resolutely attend. The book recommends a sophisticated systematic new approach to SADC land issues, which is developed in volume two, Re-conceiving Property Rights in the New Millennium. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers of Property and Conveyancing Law, Human Rights Law and Land Law.




The New Law of Land Registration


Book Description

This book is an examination of the law of land registration in England and Wales, in the light of the Land Registration Act 2002, and in particular at the way land registration is influenced by, and in turn influences, the evolution of land law as a whole. It examines the legal problems that have arisen in connection with land registration and considers the effect of the 2002 statute, drawing extensively upon the law in other jurisdictions and considering possibilities for future development. This is a book which will be essential reading for students, their teachers, and practitioners who will have to grapple with the intricacies of the new Act when it comes into force.




The Land Question in South Africa


Book Description

Publisher description




The New Political Economy of Land Reform in South Africa


Book Description

This book analyzes the new political economy of land reform in South Africa. It takes a holistic approach to understand South Africa’s land reform, assesses the current policy gaps, and suggests ways of filling them. Due to its cross-disciplinary approach, the book will appeal to a broad audience, and will benefit readers from the fields of policy reform, administration, law, political science, political economics, agricultural economics, global politics, resource studies and development studies.




Philosophical Perspectives on Land Reform in Southern Africa


Book Description

This edited collection explores a variety of philosophical perspectives on land reform in Southern Africa. Presenting an innovative focus on the philosophical themes in land reform, the contributors reflect on traditional African conceptualisations of the land, as well as Western interpretations, introducing specifically Southern African approaches to a wide range of debates. Rooted in questions of colonization and decolonization, the chapters examine what reform ought to do for the people of Africa, providing contemporary reflections on the different racial and cultural facets of the land. Notably, ideas of reconciliation, compensation, justice, development, emancipation, Ubuntu, and empowerment are explored. Vigorous and interdisciplinary in their approach, the fifteen original chapters tackle a range of questions such as: What does land mean in Africa? What ethical considerations are relevant? Which mechanisms should be used in addressing injustice regarding land reform and redistribution? Providing a comprehensive engagement with philosophical and political issues of land reform in Southern Africa, this volume is an invaluable resource to scholars, not only in Africa, but wherever similar questions of land, dispossession, and justice arise.




The Constitutional Protection and Regulation of Property and Its Influence on the Reform of Private Law and Landownership in South Africa and Germany


Book Description

One: Research Question, Terminology and Methodology.- 1: Introduction.- 1. An Introduction to the Basic Problems.- 2. Objectives of Research.- 2.1. Motivation.- 2.2. Legal Comparison.- 2.3. Delimitation.- 3. Practical Significance of Research.- 4. Inquiry Outline.- 2: Terminology.- 1. Possible Terminological Difficulties.- 2. Ownership and Property.- 2.1. Ideological Concept.- 2.2. Legal Concept.- 2.2.1. Private Law Terminology.- 2.2.2. Terminology of the Constitution.- 2.2.3. Terminology of Reform.- 2.2.4. Polarisation of the Private Law Property and Constitutional Property.- 3. Public Interest, Common Weal and Public Purposes.- 3.1. Public Interest and Common Weal in the Constitutional Context.- 3.2. Public Interest, Public Purposes and the Property Clauses.- 3.2.1. Public Interest, Public Purposes and Expropriation.- 3.2.2. Public Interest, Public Purposes and Land Reform.- 4. The Relationship between Property and Public Interest.- 3: Legal Comparison and the Course of Inquiry.- 1. Legal Comparison as Method of Analysis.- 2. Comparative Analysis as Constitutional Directive.- 3. Possibilities for Legal Comparison.- 4. Similarities in the German and South African Property Orders.- 4.1. Bases of the Legal Systems and their Material Law.- 4.2. Corresponding Legal Problems.- 4.3. Comparable Legal Methods.- 4.4. Constitutional Principles.- 5. Differences between the German and South African Systems of Property Law.- 5.1. Drafting Circumstances.- 5.2. Wording of South African and German Property Clauses.- 6. Course of Inquiry.- Two: Background to the Constitutional Protection of Property in Germany and South Africa.- 4: The Drafting Histories of the South African and German Constitutional Property Clauses.- 1. Relevance of an Historical Inquiry.- 2. Germany: Development of Property Protection Under a Constitution.- 2.1. Historical Background of article 14 GG.- 2.1.1. First Attempts at Constitutional Protection of Property.- 2.1.2. Property Protection in the Weimar Republic and Under National-Socialism.- 2.1.3. Circumstances Influencing the Drafting of article 14 GG.- 2.1.4. Constitutional Property Protection in a Reunified Germany.- 2.2. Relevance of article 14 GG for the German Property Order.- 3. South Africa: Negotiating a Constitutional Property Clause.- 3.1. Historical Background to the Property Clauses.- 3.1.1. The Inclusion of a Property Guarantee in the Constitution.- 3.1.2. Compromises Incorporated in Section 28 IC and Section 25 FC.- 3.1.3 Certification of Section 25 FC.- 3.2. Relevance of the Constitutional Property Clauses for the South African Property Order.- 4. Constitutionalism and Socio-economic Needs.- 5: Structure of the Constitutional Protection and Regulation of Property in Germany and South Africa.- 1. External Aspects of the Constitutional Property Clauses.- 2. "Positive" and "Negative" Guarantees.- 2.1. The German Property Guarantee.- 2.2 The South African Property Guarantees.- 2.2.1. Section 28 IC.- 2.2.2. Section 25 FC.- 2.3. Legal-comparative Evaluation.- 3. Basic Structure of an Inquiry into the Constitutional Property Clause.- 3.1. Structure of Human Rights Litigation in General.- 3.2. Substantive Issues Relating to the Property Clause.- 3.2.1. Claims Arising from the Constitutional Property Clause.- 3.2.1.1. The Claim to Have Property.- 3.2.1.2. Eligibility to Hold Property.- 3.2.1.3. Insulation of Private Property from State Interference.- 3.2.1.4. Immunity against Uncompensated Expropriation.- 3.2.2. Stages of Inquiries Based on the Constitutional Property Clause.- 3.2.2.1. Inquiries into the Constitutional Validity of an Interference with Property.- 3.2.2.1.1. "Threshold Question".- 3.2.2.1.2. Infringement Question.- 3.2.2.1.3. Justifiability.- 3.2.2.2. Inquiries Regarding the Payment of Compensation.- 3.2.3. Summary: Object of Protection and Nature of Limitation.- 3.3. The Structure of the Judicial System and its Relevance for a Constitutional Property Inquiry.- 3.3.1. The South African Judicia...