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Includes bibliographic references. / This research develops a pro-poor prenuptial agreement as an innovative land tenure tool to secure rights in urban subsidized housing. The model tested is confined to prenuptial agreements under the Marriage Act, but is relevant to other cohabitation or marital agreements that could be used to secure social tenure arising from intimate relationships. The model aims at securing the tenure of the entire household, in particular the more vulnerable members of the household. The research focuses on urban State -subsidized housing, with an emphasis on the Western Cape, South Africa. This housing is transferred to beneficiaries by registration of individual or co-ownership at the Deeds Registry, with the title deeds public documents. While prenuptial agreements are not usually regarded as a land tenure tool, the fact that they are also public documents registered at the Deeds Office makes them pertinent. A limited dataset of recent academic writing is analysed to identify the social context of household conflict and tenure insecurity, and existing legal template clauses assessed. The prenuptial template design is predicated on current tenure approaches that regard informal practices as equally relevant for the poor's tenure security as the formal law. The template uses various strategies to manage tenure insecurity arising from the death of an owner, disputes, or threatened eviction of dependents. It also aims to ensure that diverse normative beliefs are respected, particularly African normative systems. A personal servitude is used to secure housing tenure as a real right burdening the land, making this a very secure right. In addition the template includes a succession agreement and dispute resolution mechanisms. The template model is tested on clients simulated by re-storying the facts of two seminal Constitutional Court cases and a recent case study of another researcher. Focus groups are held with housing beneficiaries and interviews with housing officials, as a preliminary test of the private and public reception of such agreements. The need for legal aid is discussed. The research makes clear that cohabitation and marital agreements can be used to secure overlapping land rights that the ownership paradigm does not currently protect.

The first object of this essay is to trace any tendency of the Natives in the Cape Colony to modify their own communal system of land occupation in favour of any system more approximating to the Western ideal of individual tenure or ownership. The significance of any such tendency need not be emphasised. The communal occupation of land is one of the most essential bases of tribal organisation. It is closely linked up with the organisation of the family as an economic unit, as well as with the tribe in that aspect. It is, indeed, at the very roots of the Native family and tribal system. To trace any changes from communal to individual occupation mu.st be a part, therefore, of a larger study, viz., of the development of tribal life so as to admit of free economic action by individuals untrammelled by the bonds of tribal custom.

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Thesis (LLM)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Section 25(6) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996 guarantees legally secure tenure to persons whose tenure of land is insecure as a result of past racially discriminatory laws and practices. The Extension of Security of Tenure Act 62 of 1997 (ESTA) and the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act 3 of 1996 (LTA) were enacted to give effect to section 25(6), read with section 25(9) of the Constitution, with the aim to improve and strengthen tenure security in rural areas, including farmland. However, the general opinion amongst scholars is that these efforts to strengthen tenure security have generally failed to ensure legally secure tenure on farmland. To this effect, the Draft tenure security policy and Draft Land Tenure Security Bill (2010) were formulated to introduce new measures to improve tenure security on farmland. This gives a clear indication that eighteen years after the government embarked on an all-encompassing land reform programme, its intended goals have not yet been achieved, resulting in the continued challenges faced by farm dwellers. The thesis discusses the inherent challenges associated with tenure security on white-owned commercial farmland, with specific reference to government‟s obligation to improve tenure security; the nature of farm dwellers‟ rights; and the shortcomings of the existing policy and legislative measures. A historical overview explains the effects of the apartheid land holding system that underpins the need for tenure reform, while an analysis of constitutional and international law sets out the guiding principles on tenure security. An analysis of the applicable policy and legislative measures establishes the causes of continued tenure insecurity on farmland, which include shortcomings in the main legislative measures; failure by the legislature to translate policy into legislation; misinterpretation and misapplication of legislation by the courts; and lack of effective implementation. The thesis considers the impact of the Draft tenure security policy and the Bill in light of the challenges facing farm dwellers and concludes that tenure security in relation to farmland remains insecure and government still falls short of the appropriate solutions to address the tenure security challenges on farmland. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Artikel 25(6) van die Grondwet van die Republiek van Suid-Afrika 1996 waarborg sekerheid van verblyfregte vir persone wie se verblyfregte regsonseker is as gevolg van ras-diskriminerende wette en praktyke van die verlede. Die Wet op die Uitbreiding van Sekerheid van Verblyfreg 62 van 1997 (ESTA) en die Wet op Grondhervorming (Huurarbeiders) 3 van 1996 (LTA) is gepromulgeer om gevolg te gee aan artikel 25(6), saamgelees met artikel 25(9), van die Grondwet, wat daarop gemik is om die sekerheid van verblyfregte in landelike gebiede te verbeter en te versterk. Die algemene siening onder geleerdes is egter dat hierdie pogings om sekerheid van bestaande verblyfregte te versterk oor die algemeen ten opsigte van verblyfregte op landbougrond gefaal het. In verband hiermee is die Konsep beleid op sekerheid van verblyfregte (Draft tenure security policy) en die Konsep Wetsontwerp op die Sekerheid van Verblyfregte in Grond (Draft Land Tenure Security Bill) (2010) geformuleer om nuwe maatreëls voor te stel om sekerheid van verblyfregte ten opsigte van landbougrond te bewerkstellig. Hierdie ontwikkelings gee ‟n aanduiding dat die staat ná ‟n omvattende grondhervormingsprogram van agtien jaar nie die beoogde doelwitte bereik het nie en dat plaasbewoners steeds uitdagings in die gesig staar. Hierdie tesis bespreek die inherente uitdagings wat geassosioseer word met regsonsekere verblyfregte ten opsigte van kommersiële landbougrond, hoofsaaklik van wit grondeienaars, met spesifieke verwysing na die staat se plig om regsekerheid te versterk; die aard van plaasbewoners se regte; en die tekortkominge van die bestaande beleids- en wetgewende maatreëls. Die behoefte aan hervorming word beklemtoon met verwysing na ‟n historiese oorsig wat die uitwerking van die apartheid-grondbeheerstelsel verduidelik, terwyl ‟n analise van grondwetlike en internasionale reg die beginsels met betrekking tot die sekerheid van verblyfregte uiteensit. ‟n Analise van die toepaslike beleids- en wetgewende maatreëls dui op die oorsake van voortdurende onsekerheid van verblyfregte in landbougrond, wat die volgende insluit: tekortkominge in die primêre wetgewende maatreëls; versuim deur die wetgewer om beleid in wetgewing om te skakel; foutiewe uitleg of toepassing van wetgewing deur die howe; en ‟n gebrek aan die effektiewe uitvoering van wetgewing. Die tesis oorweeg die impak van die Konsep beleid op sekerheid van verblyfregte (Draft tenure security policy) en die Konsep Wetsontwerp in die lig van die uitdagings waarmee plaasbewoners steeds te kampe het, en kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat verblyfregte ten opsigte van landbougrond steeds regsonseker is en dat die staat steeds versuim om geskikte oplossings vir die uitdagings daar te stel.

The development of and changes in human social organization have been a concern of anthropological research since the inception of the discipline. A perspective that focuses on the interaction between exogenous (ecological and historical) variables and social organization is argued for herein. This study tests the idea that inheritance patterns reflect both land use and sociohistorical factors. Further, it is suggested that after their move into the American Southwest, the inheritance of agricultural land was influential in the development, although not necessarily the origins, of matrilineality among the Navajo. Data were obtained on land tenure practices in Canyon de Chelly and its major tributary, Canyon del Muerto, historically important centers of Navajo agriculture. Detailed interviews with 93% of the Navajo families owning land in the canyons provided information on land use and inheritance patterns since the 1880s. Data from over 400 cases of land transfers were analyzed. Historical documents and archaeological studies also provided information on Navajo settlement patterns, changes in farming practices and environmental fluctuations since the mid-1700s. Within the past fifty years, and probably longer, topographic and physiographic differences between Canyon de Chelly and Canyon del Muerto have contributed to variations in land use within the canyon system. Ditch irrigated feed crops are now only grown in Canyon del Muerto, and they are commonly used by families involved in market oriented cattle ranching. Further, as a result of erosion problems, the production potential of some canyon areas, as well as the quantity of arable land, is declining. Not all families are able to meet the increasing need for labor and capital intensive practices that could maximize agricultural production on their canyon land, but it remains a highly valued resource. This research indicates that since the 1880s agricultural land in Canyon de Chelly has been transferred more frequently along matrilineal lines, and the explanations for the differences in land tenure patterns between the canyons over time relate both to ecological and socio-historical variables. In conclusion, it is argued that the complexity found within this canyon system reflects a heterogeneity common to any culture, but which anthropologists tend to overlook.

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