This thesis summarises research on the implementation of land restitution policy in the old West Bank Location, in East London. Apartheid legislation dispossessed many Black people of their land. After 1994, the new democratic government implemented a land reform programme, land policy was reviewed, and people were compensated for the loss of land either financially or through restoration of their land. The original cut-off date for claims was 1998, but the window for claims was reopened in July 2014 because of difficulties in implementation. The period for the lodging of claims was extended to end June 2019 to allow people who had not yet been able to do so to participate in the process. In case of the old West Bank Location claims, compensation was in the form of land restoration, including houses which would be built for the claimants. This study documents the successes and challenges encountered in the implementation of land policy in the old West Bank Location. Triangulation of methods was used: data were collected from documents, interviews with claimants, interviews with government officials, and observation of meetings. Recommendations with regard to land policy are made on the basis of the research findings.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The thesis examines the characteristics of land tenure among African families with freehold title who trace their relationship to the land to their forebears who first acquired title in the mid-nineteenth century. The evidence was drawn from two field sites in the Eastern Cape, Fingo Village, Grahamstown and Rabula in the Keiskammahoek district of the former Ciskei. The evidence, supported by evidence in other Anglophone countries, shows that African familial relationships reminiscent of ‘customary’ concepts of the family, were not, and are not extinguished when title is issued, though they are altered. Africans with title regard the land as family property held by unilineal descent groups, challenging the western notion of one-to-one proprietal relationships to the land and its devolution. By exploring the intersection between tenure, use and devolution of land, the main findings reveal that local conceptions of land and use diverge considerably from the formal, legal notion of title. Title holders conceive of their land as the property of all recognised members of a patrilineally defined descent group symbolised by the family name. Because freehold is so intimately linked with inheritance, the findings significantly illuminate the social field of gender and kinship. The implications of the findings are that differing concepts of the ‘family’ and ‘property’ are fundamental to the lack of ‘fit’ between the common-law concept of ownership and what I term in the thesis ‘African freehold’. The thesis dissects the implications of culturally constructed variability in familial identities for recognition and transmission of property. Title is legally regulated by Eurocentric notions of both family and property, which lead to significant divergence between western and African interpretations of ownership, transmission and spatial division of land. The deficiencies of the South African legal mindset with regard to property law are thus fundamentally affected by the deficiencies in recognising the broader field of gender and kinship relations. The findings fundamentally challenge the dualistic paradigm currently prevalent in much of South African legal thinking, since the factors that are found to affect land tenure relationships cannot be reduced to the binary distinctions that are conventionally drawn in law, such as ‘western’ vs. ‘customary’ or ‘individual’ vs. iii ‘communal’ tenure. Instead, the important sources of validation of social (importantly, familial) and property relationships are found to be common to all property relationships, but are arranged and calibrated according to different normative patterns of recognition. In the case of the subjects in the field sites, these do not fit into the main ‘categories’ of property defined in law. Neither of the main bodies of official law, the common law and customary law, adequately characterise the relationships among the African freehold title holders. The source of legitimation is, therefore, not the ‘law’ but locally understood norms and practices. The findings suggest that the practices of the freeholders, derived from constructed ideas of kinship and descent, have relevance for a wide range of diverse African land tenure arrangements and categories, and not only ‘African freehold’. The findings therefore have significant implications for law reform more broadly. The thesis suggests that law reform should move away from models that do not match reality, and in particular should heed the warnings that titling policies as presently designed are particularly poorly aligned with the realities presented in the thesis.

This thesis investigates the role and nature of comprehensive community planning (CCP) within B.C. Indian communities, and analyzes the outcomes of a specific CCP experience where an outside consultant and an Indian community concentrated on planning the nature, rather than the product, of the process. The approach used is a literature review of CCP in B.C. Indian communities and theoretical concepts relevant to this type of planning. The thesis develops a normative definition of CCP which proposes use of five process characteristics that should enhance Indian planning capabilities. These are: a comprehensive scope and approach; a formal/systematic method; a developmental approach; a participatory application; and mutuality of insider/outsider relationships. A case study method is applied to the Similkameen Indian Bands' Comprehensive Community Plan. Analysis of the case uses the CCP definition to identify the nature and outcomes of the process. Indian experiences and perspectives of community planning indicate control over the process, learning from the process, and communicating in the process are difficult to achieve when outsiders are involved. This thesis argues this is due to a lack of attention to planning the nature of the process itself. For Indian communities preparing for self-government CCP may be an important developmental tool if it: improves their planning process skills and self-management capabilities; and, uses outsiders to facilitate this capacity-building without loss of control over the process. The Similkameen experience indicates that application of the proposed normative characteristics of CCP is possible. The outcomes of this case suggest that increased attention to the planning process, by insiders and outsiders, improves the nature of the process as well as producing substantive outputs. Improvements to the nature of the process include extensive community participation by involving community members in 'planning for planning'. An intensive effort was made to fully engage community members in the planning process before determining specific directions for substantive planning. Community participation allowed formal/systematic planning methods to be applied with sensitivity to Indian culture. Developmental outcomes of this participatory process include improvements in the community's planning process skills and self-management competency. 'Planning for planning' also resulted in a mutuality of insider/outsider relations to develop. This relationship placed insiders and outsiders on equal terms which contributed to mutual learning and provided opportunities for the community to direct outsiders' work in ways that best served their needs. A community plan was produced in the Similkameen case that addressed a comprehensive scope of substantive planning areas such as: Band organization and administration; social development; recreation and culture; economic development; infrastructure; and, land use. This a significant outcome given the low completion rate among other B.C. Bands for this type of plan, and the importance of CCP's in guiding overall community development. Self-direction in the full range of community functions is at the heart of self-government. Use of a -comprehensive approach enabled the community to consider inter-relations between proposed substantive actions and to consciously develop priorities for implementation. Several instances of implementation of the Similkameen Plan were observed and expressed by community members which indicate it is being used to direct action in substantive areas. Case-specific opportunities and constraints faced in preparing the Similkameen Plan are also identified. Constraints included political and organizational complexity, loss of key participants, cultural differences within the community, potential for dependency on the consultant, and time. Opportunities included ease of communication, the Band's desire to improve self-management capabilities, Indian culture, insider/outsider trust, and access to Band planning funds. Implications of this study for similar communities are identified and areas for future research are suggested. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Agriculture has been identified by the government of South Africa to play pivotal role in socio-economic emancipation of rural people and those living in common-ages. The government has made commitment to provide agricultural support services in order to increase and promote black entrepreneurs by 5% per annum. Given the socio-economic profile of the South African population and the acknowledgement of the importance of agrarian development in other countries, South Africa started its land reform after democratic government in 1994. Prior 1994, agrarian reform was based on the fact that very few black producers were actively involved in commercial farming. Attempts to correct this disparity through agrarian reform have led to several challenges such as distribution of land without balancing it with capacity-building programmes and have proven to be unsustainable and costly. Major causes of poor performance of farming based on Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises is lack of capacity in many aspects of running farming as a business and farmers are usually smallholders, producing crops in mixed inter-cropping, which result in persistent and continuous poor yield in a&' cultural production leading to poor financial returns and increase in pover1y level. Sustainability of agricultural projects are affected by the fact the at smallholder farmers do not have acquired knowledge and required skills needed for good management and proper daily operations of the project at technical level and lack of support ·om the community in buying local products Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GOARD) invested its efforts on poverty alleviation projects on smallholder farmers who have demonstrated their potentials tor agricultural activities and have experienced benefits in the form of government programmes such as CASP (Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme), Agro-Processing Infrastructure, and Letsema among others. The study has identified the constraints that smallholder farmers face in their agricultural activities and made recommendations to policy makers that will assist smallholder farmers based on their level of participation in the agricultural sector which will assist in creating comprehensive, sustainable and appropriate capacity building models and strategies for agribusiness in order to contribute significantly to the eradication of poverty, reduction of unemployment through agriculture and creation of sustainable and market driven agribusiness in Gauteng Province, South Africa. There are six hundred and thirty five agricultural projects in Gauteng Province that are practicing intensive and extensive agriculture for vegetable production and supply the formal and informal markets with their produce. However, during the sample survey, only 160 projects were selected tor the survey to identify factors affecting sustainability of agricultural projects on poverty alleviation. The farmers that participated are located in City of Tshwane (20 farmers). West Rand District (60 farmers). Ekurhuleni District Municipality (25 farmers). Sedibeng (15 farmers) and City of Johannesburg (40 farmers). Data collected was subjected to analysis using SPSS and the regression analysis was used to determine factors affecting sustainability of agricultural projects tor poverty alleviation in Gauteng Province, South Africa. The results show that 40% (the majority) of the sampled farmers were between the age of 50-59 years, while 18% of these farmers never attended school. The results of the study revealed that 65.6% of farmers had a household size of between 4-6 people and generated farm income was less than R200 000 per annum. The linear regression technique reveals a significant determinants of sustainability of agricultural projects for poverty alleviation are attitude (t=-2.71 ): impact (t=5.86): farmer participation (t=2.82). educational level (t=2.16): farming experience (t=-2.84.): farming income (t=2.28): land tenure system (t=-2.58): and land acquisition method (t=-3.98). / Thesis (M.Sc (Agric economics) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2012

Thesis (LLM) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2005

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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Current customary tenure has negative implications for the sustainable environmental management of common resources in Swaziland in that it perpetuates free-for-all scenarios that result in unabated environmental degradation by all and with none held responsible. The lack of a land policy to provide a framework for land use regulation is a significant driver of common resource destruction, as is the inability of customary tenure to evolve with the times. The cleavage between customary and statutory tenure has led to informal land markets which, if uncontrolled, could wreck not only the environment but the integrity of the traditional Swazi community. The study calls for inclusive politics which would encourage democratised public participation. After all, it is only after this fact that relevant and acceptable environmental policy can be synthesised. It also calls for the regulation of customary tenure and suggests that there is advantage in mono-ethnicity that can be exploited in trying to chart a more sustainable and morally fair management of common resources in the country. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Huidige tradisionele grondbesit het negatiewe implikasies vir die volhoubare omgewingsbestuur van gemeenskaplike hulpbronne in Swaziland omdat dit scenario‟s vestig waar almal volgens eie voorkeur optree. Dit kan tot knaende omgewingsaftakeling deur almal lei sonder dat iemand daarvoor verantwoordelik gehou word. Die gebrek aan ‟n grondbeleid wat as raamwerk vir die regulering van grondgebruik kan dien, en die onvermoë van tradisionele grondbesit om oor tyd te ontwikkel is belangrike dryfvere vir die vernietiging van gemeenskaplike hulpbronne. Die gaping tussen tradisionele en statutêre grondbesit het informele grondmarkte laat ontstaan wat tot die ondergang van nie net die omgewing nie, maar die integriteit van die tradisionele Swazi-gemeenskap kan lei as dit nie beheer word nie. Die studie bepleit inklusiewe politiek wat gedemokratiseerde openbare deelname sal aanmoedig. Dit is per slot van sake net hiervolgens wat ‟n relevante en aanvaarbare omgewingsbeleid daargestel kan word. Die studie pleit ook vir die regulering van tradisionele grondbesit en suggereer dat die ontginning van mono-etnisiteit voordelig kan wees om ‟n meer volhoubare en moreel regverdige bestuur van gemeenskaplike hulpbronne in die land te verkry.