Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-66).

M.A. (Sociology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Thesis (M.M. (Public Policy))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Governance, 2016. / The study focuses on the lived experiences of indigenous and traditional community of Phokeng in the process of urbanising. It is a community affected by unclarified policies and documents to secure their tenure. Phokeng community in Rustenburg is approximately 200 km to the west of Johannesburg. The research revealed that the rural and marginalised of Phokeng is now becoming urbanised and that there is inadequacy of legislation or policy to guarantee security of tenure in an area a under traditional authority. The community has historically depended on oral information and storytelling. A total of thirty informants were surveyed in the community. The study elicited information on informant’s understanding of security of tenure, the role they played to secure tenure to their land. It also probed, their awareness of developmental policies affecting their activities and expectations. The study revealed that people did not have title to the land they occupied but were very content that they were safe from evictions because the traditional leader and his traditional authority provided the guarantee. There is need for further research on why people in traditional authority areas that are in the process of urbanising would be content to live on land on which they do not have registered tenure rights.

This thesis provides a detailed examination of the development and implementation of a commonage management system on newly acquired municipal commonage in the Leliefontien communal area of Namaqualand, South Africa. This commonage has been acquired ostensibly for use by all of the Leliefontien's residents. A Commonage Committee made up of community members and state representatives manages this land on behalf of the municipality.

The study explored and investigated demand and struggles for land in the communal areas of South Africa with particular reference to Luphaphasi in the former Xhalanga magisterial district, in the Eastern Cape. The study argued that despite arguments about proletarianisation and conversion of rural land users into wage laborers, leading to assumptions that there was less interest in land use by rural people, there is and has always been demand and struggles for land in communal areas such as Xhalanga.

Thesis (M.Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2007 / Past land policies in South Africa, which resulted in forced removals, caused insecurity among citizens, the landless as well as insufficient land administration and land use. Based on this problem, the current democratic government has developed a comprehensive and far reaching land reform policy and programmes to effect historical reconciliation, growth and development to benefit its citizens, more especially those in the rural areas where poverty is rife. Irrespective of developing land reform policies and programmes, there are still rural areas such as Syferkuil that continue to experience land ownership problems caused by the past regime. They do not benefit from such programmes. As such, this community is underdeveloped compared to other communities irrespective of being in the vicinity of highly resourced places such as the University of Limpopo experimental farm. For instance, there is no single secondary school or poverty alleviation project and facilities for primary health care in this community. As such, the study was undertaken to establish the impact of land ownership on rural development in this community. Qualitative, description research was conducted and data were collected by means of focus group interviews to get a clear picture of the impact of land ownership on the people of Syferkuil. The study identified and described the issues of land ownership, which are the major obstacles to the development of this community. These include the lack of clarity in land ownership, the lack of authority by the community leaders and chiefs as well as the overlapping of land rights. Based on the summary of the findings, recommendations were made which will be beneficial to whoever might be involved in the development of this community

This study considers the relationships between women and land amongst female land owners in two communities within KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Motivated by the lack of qualitative data surrounding women as land beneficiaries, this study focuses on the extent to which land and land ownership effect women’s livelihood strategies and how such assets contribute to and/or limit women’s practical and strategic needs. Although this study supports data suggesting that women’s access to land and land ownership is slowly increasing, it suggests that the positive effects of land on women’s lives are greatly limited by poor access to basic services and agricultural inputs, and lingering patriarchal cultural norms. Such limitations, combined with low education levels amongst women regarding their land rights, have thus far hindered the South African Department of Land Affairs in meeting its targeted goals of poverty reduction and livelihood improvements. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

The study explored and investigated demand and struggles for land in the communal areas of South Africa with particular reference to Luphaphasi in the former Xhalanga magisterial district, in the Eastern Cape. The study argued that despite arguments about proletarianisation and conversion of rural land users into wage laborers, leading to assumptions that there was less interest in land use by rural people, there is and has always been demand and struggles for land in communal areas such as Xhalanga.

This thesis provides a detailed examination of the development and implementation of a commonage management system on newly acquired municipal commonage in the Leliefontien communal area of Namaqualand, South Africa. This commonage has been acquired ostensibly for use by all of the Leliefontien's residents. A Commonage Committee made up of community members and state representatives manages this land on behalf of the municipality.

The following dissertation sets out to investigate the decline of agriculture in Mission location at Butterworth, Transkei, using the Rehabilitation Scheme as a benchmark. The scheme was introduced in 1945 to combat soil erosion and improve agriculture in the African reserve areas, as the South African government claimed. The dissertation argues that this claim by the government served to mask the real intentions behind the scheme namely, to regiment the migrant labour system by depriving as many Africans as possible of productive land so that they were unable to fully subsist by means of agriculture. This is further shown by analysing the impact of the Rehabilitation scheme in Mission location in which a substantial number of people lost arable land as a result of the implementation of the scheme in 1945. These people were consequently denied the wherewithal to subsist by agriculture. Moreover, the efforts of the government resulted to a modernisation of agriculture by making it more cash-based- for example through the introduction of fencing, the need for tractors as a result of a decline in stock numbers (in part as a result of stock culling). Most people could hardly afford this type of agriculture and were consequently forced off the land. The dissertation concludes that indeed the decline of agriculture in Mission location can be linked to the changing agricultural and land-holding practices brought about by the government- especially the introduction of the Rehabilitation scheme.