Land Reform in South Africa: An Overview - Centre for Civil Society

and cronyism in land allocation. However, the primary purpose of land reformshould revert to *304 alleviating poverty and to ensuring a dignifiedexistence for the majority of the citizens.Despite the fact that the state has not achieved its ambitious target set in1994, there is clearly progress in land redistribution and it has come aboutin an orderly manner. According to a recent study, 1.4 million hectares weretransferred to approximately 130, 000 beneficiaries between 1994 and 2002.[FN82] This is only 1.7% and a long way from the 30% target but it is,nonetheless, progress.TENURE REFORMTenure reform is intended to provide secure tenure for those living for along time on land owned by others without secure rights. The targeted personsinclude farm workers, former farm workers, sharecroppers, as well as labourtenants. The policy also aims at protecting people living on communal landwithout secure rights. As section 25 (6) of the Constitution puts it: "Aperson or community whose tenure of land is legally insecure as a result ofpast racially discriminatory laws or practices is entitled to the extentprovided by an Act of Parliament, either to tenure which is legally secure orto comparable redress." Because of the segregation and apartheid policies thatdenied black people access to land, many migrated to the cities or tocommercial farms in search of employment. They never acquired ownership orother secure rights on land and stayed on land on the basis of a governmentpermit or permission to occupy or with the consent of the landowner. Thismeant that such permission or consent was liable to be withdrawn at any timewith the consequence that the occupier became a squatter. As discussed above,the notorious Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act 52 of 1951 was frequentlyused to evict such occupies and move them to the crowded black homelands. Inthe communal land areas (mainly the former homelands), occupiers hold landunder customary law, which does not permit individual ownership as understoodin the western type common law. Instead, they have use rights under customarylaw, which though traditionally secure, can be arbitrarily taken away bycorrupt chiefs. With the new democratic dispensation, it was necessary toimprove security of tenure for all vulnerable occupiers of land. It is in thiscontext that constitutional provision *305 was made requiring the state topass an Act of Parliament providing for security of tenure to those withinsecure use of land.Parliament did not pass one piece of legislation providing for security oftenure but rather a number of laws addressing the needs of differentcategories of landholders. The major ones are the Land Reform (Labour Tenants)Act 3 of 1996, which protects labour tenants, and the Extension of Security ofTenure Act 62 of 1997 [ESTA], which protects other occupiers of rural landwith consent of owners. A less significant law is the Interim Protection ofInformal Land Rights Act 31 of 1996 (IPILR) that was enacted as a temporarymeasure to provide protection for de facto occupation, particularly in thepage 13 of 28