Land restitution's rights communities': The district six case

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 33, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 267-285

  Beyers, Christiaan ^a  

^a TRENT UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BUREAUCRACY; CITIZENSHIP; HUMAN RIGHTS; LAND RIGHTS; PLANNING LEGISLATION; POLITICAL DISCOURSE; POLITICAL PARTICIPATION; SOCIAL EXCLUSION;

EID: 34248181136     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070701292582     Document Type: Article

References (81)

1. See C. Soudien, 'District Six: From Protest to Protest', in S. Jeppie and C. Soudien (eds), The Struggle for District Six: Past and Present (Cape Town, Buchu Books, 1990).
2. D. James, '"After Years in the Wilderness": The Discourse of Land Claims in the New South Africa', Journal of Peasant Studies, 27, 3 (2000), p. 144.
3. C. Walker, 'Land Reform and Gender in Post-Apartheid South Africa' (Discussion paper, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Gender, Poverty and Well-Being, United Nations Development Programme, 1998).
4. For recent country-wide analyses of the restitution process, see R. Hall, 'Land Restitution in South Africa: Rights, Development and the Restrained State', Canadian Journal of African Studies, 38, 3 (2004), pp. 654-71
5. C. Walker, 'The Limits to Land Reform: Rethinking "the Land Question"', Journal of Southern African Studies (hereafter JSAS), 31, 4 (December 2005), pp. 805-24.
6. A very small percentage of national expenditure is allocated to land reform, and the DLA and CRLR have struggled to expend fully their annual budget allocations - Due in large part to inadequate institutional capacity and human resources (Walker, 'The Limits to Land Reform'). Budget allocations have risen significantly since the 2003/04 financial year (C. Walker, 'Delivery and Disarray: The Multiple Meanings of Land Restitution', in J. Daniel, R. Southall, S. Buhlungu and J. Lutchman (eds), State of the Nation 3: South Africa 2005-2006 (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2005), pp. 67-92 (p. 71).
7. See Walker, 'The Limits of Land Reform'.
8. T. Gwanya, 'Land Restitution in South Africa: Our Achievements and Challenges', 26 May 2003 (Archived material, Regional Land Claims Commission (hereafter RLCC) Office, Cape Town).
9. C. Walker, personal communication, 1 September 2005.
10. S. Sibanda, 'Land Reform and Poverty Alleviation in South Africa' (paper presented at the SARPN Conference on Land Reform and Poverty Alleviation in Southern Africa, Pretoria, 4-5 June 2001).
11. See C. Beyers, Land Restitution in District Six, Cape Town (DPhil. Dissertation, University of Sussex, 2005).
12. Cape Argus, 12 June 1996.
13. Interview with Nagia, 14 June 2002.
14. District Six Beneficiary and Redevelopment Trust, 'News and Events, 10 September' (electronic document, http://www.d6bentrust.org.za, retrieved September 2002).
15. The Natives' Land Act, which 'heralded the formal adoption of territorial segregation as the leading principle of post-Union land policy' (DLA, White Paper), was promulgated on this date.
16. Direct descendants include spouses, children and legally adopted children.
17. Interview with L. Waring, 16 July 2001.
18. The State applied its interpretation of the Slums Act of 1934 as amended in 1937 (N. Barnett, Race, Housing and Town Planning in Cape Town, c.1920-1940, with Special Reference to District Six (M.A. thesis, University of Cape Town, 1993), pp. 154-8.
19. See also D. Pinnock, 'Ideology and Urban Planning: Blueprints of a Garrison City', in W. James and M. Simons, The Angry Divide: Social and Economic History of the Western Cape (Cape Town, David Phillip, 1989), pp. 150-68).
20. As an extension of the national 'Urban Labour Preference Policy' (ULPP), the Coloured Labour Preference Policy (CLPP) had not only a regional focus but an urban focus: 'In line with the ULPP, African migrant labour would not be permitted into the urban areas of the Western Cape until the resident Coloured labour supply had been fully utilized' (D. Posel, The Making of Apartheid, 1948-1961: Conflict and Compromise, Oxford Studies in African Affairs (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1991), p. 88). The Native Urban Areas Consolidation Act of 1945 as amended in 1952 was no doubt also used for Africans who did not have rights under its Section 10 (1)
21. see R. Humphries, 'Administrative Politics and the Coloured Labour Preference Policy', in The Angry Divide, pp. 169-79).
22. The CLPP, which was inaugurated in 1955, was used to override 'Section 10 rights' (Posel, The Making of Apartheid, pp. 219-20).
23. Interview with L. Waring, 17 June 2002.
24. Ibid.
25. In most urban restitution claims, where the land has been redeveloped or purchased by private owners subsequent to removals, this option is very unlikely because of its expense to the state which would have to purchase the property at the current market price.
26. Restitution could also come in the form of 'upgrading tenure and living conditions in areas presently occupied by claimants, tax and rates rebates, and 'symbolic' restitution' (R. Donaldson et al., 'Land Restitution and Land Tenure: An Introduction', in R. Donaldson and L. Marais, Transforming Rural and Urban Spaces in South Africa During the 1990s: Reform, Restitution, Restructuring [Pretoria, Africa Institute, 2002], p. 17).
27. Interview with S. Molepo, 22 June 2005.
28. Commission for the Restitution of Land Rights (CRLR), Newsletter, February 1999 (Archived material, RLCC Office, Cape Town).
29. Although the group of ex-residents of District Six commonly think of themselves as a 'community', they do not fit the definition of the term in the Land Restitution Act (Section 1(1)): '"community" means any group of persons whose rights in land are derived from shared rules determining access to land held in common by such group, and includes part of any such group' (italics added).
30. Interview with Mr Mojapelo (RLCC), 7 July 2005.
31. R60,000 for the first 24 units recently constructed, and a projected R120,000 for the next 120-odd units (Interview with N. Ally, 7 July 2005).
32. Interview with Project Officer of Finance for District Six, 15 July 2005.
33. Interview with S. Molepo (RLCC), 22 June 2005. Former trader or business claims are for all intents and purposes treated as ownership claims, with the same SSO applying, as the policy is that consequential losses of business in the interim since relocation will not be covered by restitution (Interview with Project Officer of Finance for District Six, 15 July 2005).
34. See, for example., C. Walker, '"We are Consoled" - Reconstructing Cremin', South African Historical Journal, 51 (2004), pp. 199-223.
35. 'Delivery and Disarray'; 'The Limits to Land Reform'; and especially D. James, 'Hill of Thorns: Custom, Knowledge and the Reclaiming of a Lost Land in the New South Africa', Development and Change, 31, 3 (2000), pp. 629-49
36. and D. James, Gaining Ground: Rights and Property in South African Land Reform (London, Routledge-Cavendish, 2006).
37. Interview with M. Legassick, 2 August 2001; Walker, 'We are Consoled'; James, Gaining Ground.
38. Interview with M. Kamedien, 29 May 2002.
39. K. Ramballi and B. Maharaj, U. Bob, I. Kwaw, 'Land Reform and Restitution in South Africa: A Critical Review', in R. Donaldson and L. Marais, Transforming Rural and Urban Spaces in South Africa During the 1990s: Reform, Restitution, Restructuring (Pretoria, Africa Institute of South Africa, 2002), pp. 29-52 (p. 38).
40. James, Gaining Ground.
41. V. Bickford-Smith, Ethnic Pride and Racial Prejudice in Victorian Cape Town (Johannesburg, Witwatersrand University Press, 2001), p. 19.
42. Interview with A. Nagia, 14 June 2002.
43. Interview with anonymous, 8 June 2002. (Several interviews undertaken in the course of conducting this research were granted only on condition of confidentiality.)
44. V. Bickford-Smith, 'Segregation and the Unique Case of Cape Town?', JSAS, Special Issue: Urban Studies and Urban Change in Southern Africa 21, 1 (March 1995), pp. 63-78 (pp. 76-7).
45. N. Ngcelwane, Sala Kahle District Six: An African Woman's Perspective (Cape Town, Kwela Books, 1998), p. 9.
46. Interview with Waring, 17 June 2002.
47. R. Neale, 'Report to the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights (Western and Northern Cape Region) on work done for the Commission Concerning Compensation of Claims from Former Residents of District Six', South Africa, Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, 1996 (archived material, RLCC Office, Cape Town).
48. Ibid., emphasis added.
49. Tozi Gwanya interviewed by P. Khanyile in 'Would there be Another Chance?', Land News, 1, (2004), (electronic document, http://land.pwv.gov.za/publications/formal/land_info/ FirstFour.html#unity, retrieved 26 October 2005).
50. Interview with anonymous, 23 March 2001.
51. Interview with anonymous, 30 May 2001.
52. On social citizenship, see especially M.R. Somers, 'Citizenship and the Place of the Public Sphere: Law, Community, and Political Culture in the Transition to Democracy', American Sociological Review, 58 (October 1993), pp. 587-620.
53. Interview with F. Zottle, Communications Officer at the RLCC, 18 April 2002.
54. CRLR, 'Report on the Restitution "Stake Your Claim" Campaign', Commission News Newsletter, 24 May 1999 (archived material, RLCC Office, Cape Town).
55. Interview with F. Zottle, 18 April 2002.
56. At the 2005 Land Summit, the Commission also acknowledged that despite these efforts, 'communication problems' contributed to 'communities' failing to meet the deadline for submitting claims (S. Gutto, 'Recommendations From Commission on Theme Two Land Restitution: Balancing Rights of the Dispossessed And Economic Development', in Conference Proceedings of the Land Summit, 2005, electronic document: http://land.pwv.gov.za, retrieved 26 August 2005).
57. A. du Toit, 'The End of Restitution: Getting Real about Land Claims' (paper prepared for the Land and Agrarian Reform Conference, Pretoria, 26-28 July 1999), pp. 11-18.
58. M. Brown et al., Land Restitution in South Africa (Cape Town, Idasa, 1998), p. 43.
59. See Soudien, 'District Six: From Protest to Protest'.
60. Du Toit, 'The End of Restitution', p. 17.
61. Compare J. Ferguson, The Anti-politics Machine: 'Development', Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho (Minneapolis, MN, University of Minnesota Press, 1994).
62. As mentioned earlier, it is beyond the scope of this article to venture much beyond a politics within the arena of land restitution; a consideration of the bearing of representational politics at the level of the local, regional and national level awaits another article.
63. For example, in her 'State of the Nation' Address to Parliament on 8 June 2004, Ms Thoko Didiza, then Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, included District Six, along with the Payneville housing development, as 'examples that show the benefits of working together'. She defined the 'partnerships for development' as consisting of 'private companies, co-operatives and community based organisations and even family owned and operated businesses'.
64. Ramballi and Maharaj, 'Land Reform and Restitution in South Africa' (p. 39).
65. The zoning plan prepared for land in District Six after the demolition of the area - Zoning for public open space, some commercial and residential space, and parking space - Has been deemed to be inappropriate for development.
66. Interview with I. Murison (City of Cape Town), 1 July 2005.
67. Facing a potential publicity fiasco, the City rushed their plans and decided to transfer the land in question part way through the construction, thus legalising the pilot project (interview with N. Ally, 7 July 2005).
68. See James, Gaining Ground.
69. See Beyers, Land Restitution in District Six, Cape Town.
70. Cape Argus, 20 September 2002.
71. See D. James, 'Land for the Landless: Conflicting Images of Rural and Urban in South Africa's Land Reform Programme' Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 19, 1 (2001), pp. 94-109
72. James, Gaining Ground; Walker, 'Delivery and Disarray'.
73. W.D. Thwala, 'Land Reform and Agrarian Reform in South Africa', National Land Committee (electronic document, http://www.nlc.co.za/pubs.htm, retrieved April 2004).
74. See A. Bohlin, 'Price on the Past: Cash as Compensation in South African Land Restitution', Canadian Journal of African Studies, 38, 3 (2004) on some of the wider symbolic implications of monetary compensation.
75. Du Toit 'The End of Restitution', p. 8.
76. An early indication of the difficulties of reinstating 'community' occurred in the case of Riemvasmaak, where land was recovered by the community before the Restitution Act had been passed. When claimants who had been forcibly removed to three different geographical areas resettled the area after a 30-year interim, serious conflicts and divisions undermined the possibility of creating a viable and organised social structure (see P. Mckenzie, 'Reclaiming the Land: A Case Study of Riemvasmaak', in J. Cock and P. Mckenzie (eds), From Defence to Development: Redirecting Military Resources in South Africa (International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, and David Philip, Cape Town, 1998), pp. 60-84).
77. More recently, the decisive difficulties in consolidating a 'community' in the wake of the settlement of the Khomani San claim in 1999, suggest the need for further caution (see S. Robins, 'NGO's, "Bushmen" and Double Vision: The !Khomani San Land Claim and the Cultural Politics of "Community" and "Development in the Kalahari"', JSAS, 27, 4 (December 2001), pp. 833-53).
78. N. Rose, 'Governing Cities, Governing Citizens', in E.F. Isin (ed.), Democracy, Citizenship and the Global City (London, Routledge, 2000), p. 99.
79. See James, Gaining Ground.
80. Interview with anonymous, 16 May 2002.
81. James, Gaining Ground.