Buying Naboth's Vineyard: The Challenges of Land Transfer Under the 1936 Native Trust and Land Act

Abstract

Under the 1936 Natives Trust and Land Act, the government ‘released’ about 6.5 per cent of the country's land from the restrictions of the 1913 Land Act. The South African Native Trust was established to purchase farms within and sometimes adjoining these ‘released areas’ for the purpose of African settlement. This article looks at the process of land buying under the 1936 Act in the Letaba District of the Northern Transvaal, an area which saw substantial land redistribution from 1937 to 1960, including the acquisition by the S.A.N.T of highly desirable, arable farms. This process, including a failed attempt to restore ‘ancient tribal land’ to local chiefs who had been dispossessed of it in the previous century, reveals the many challenges and contradictions inherent in a programme of land redistribution. I argue that understanding this process of land transfer from private owners to the state provides valuable insights for land reform policy-makers.

Keywords:

• 1913 Natives Land Act
• 1936 Native Trust and Land Act
• Letaba District
• land redistribution
• land reform

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Prof Peter Delius in the Wits History department for supervising my research, the NRF Chair in ‘Local Histories and Present Realities’, and the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust for funding my studies. I would also like to thank participants in the History Workshop seminar where I presented a version of this article as a paper.

Notes

Pretoria National Archives (PNA) SAB NTS 3728 1993/308, ‘Naboth's Vineyard’ in Bantu World 24 February 1945.

Ibid.

For overviews of this literature see Beinart, Delius and Trapido (1986); and Beinart (2001).

PNA SAB NTS 3729 1993/308, Memorandum by Die Ondersekrataris (Naturelle Gebiede) Trust en Naturellegrond in Letaba Distrik, 2 March 1956 (although these figures were given in 1956, a number of the farms still outstanding at the time of this report were purchased in 1959, meaning that all of the land reserved under the 1936 Land Act had been bought by the Trust, given as 34.8 per cent of the district).

In 2000 African Studies published a Special Issue on ‘Historical Research and Policymaking in South Africa’ as it related to land reform. The Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) held a workshop on ‘Policy and History’ in 2012.

The Letaba District was defined in 1929, before then the area was a part of the Zoutpansberg District, which between 1902 and 1910 was divided into a number of smaller districts.

‘1904 Report by the Commissioner for Native Affairs relative to the Acquisition and Tenure of Land by Natives in the Transvaal’:22.

Ibid:33.

Ibid.

Government Publications, UG 22-'16, Report of the Native Land Commission vol II:213.

PNA SAB NTS 7083 2/323, ‘Natives on Harmony Block’ various letters.

For more on the history of white settlers in this area see Changuion, Haenertsburg 100, 1887–1987; and Wongtschowski, Between Woodbush and Wolkberg.

Government Publications, UG 31-'18, Majority Report of the Eastern Transvaal Natives Land Committee:4.

PNA SAB NTS 3728 1993/308, Col NS Mockford to Col DL Smit, 8 April 1944.

There were roughly 1,292 registered tenants on four of the farms, 160 kraals (probably a larger number of families) on another farm, and at least 200 families evicted from a sixth farm. PNA SAB NTS 3728 1993/308, Note of Interview with Colonel Booysen, MP, 3 February 1948; Assistant Native Commissioner to Chief Native Commissioner, Northern Areas, 18/8/1948.

PNA SAB NTS 3727 1993/308, Investigations Native Affairs Commission: Letaba District, Tzaneen 12/8/1937; Duivelskloof 13/8/1937; Leydsdorp Area, 14/8/1937, general correspondence; NTS 3622 1225/308, general correspondence; NTS 3644 1225/308, general correspondence.

For examples, PNA SAB NTS 3727 1993/308, Investigations Native Affairs Commission: Letaba District.

Ibid.

PNA SAB LDE 2312, numerous files.

PNA TAB HKN 1/1/3 1/15/5(1), Native Commissioners Conference, 1946.

Wits Historical Papers (WHP), AD 843/RJ Sb3.34, E Rheinallt-Jones to TR Masethe, 29 July 1941.

Ibid; WHP, AD 843/RJ/Sb3.63, Assistant Native Commissioner, Tzaneen, to JD Rheinallt-Jones, 21 August 1942

PNA TAB HKN 1/1/3, 1/15/5(1), Native Commissioners Conference, 1946.

PNA SAB NTS 3728 1993/308, ‘Native Trust Farms’ in Bantu World 24 February 1945.

PNA SAB NTS 3728 1993/308, JA Hood, Secretary Ofcolaco Farmers' Association, to Assistant Native Commissioner, Leydsdorp, 4 November 1944.

PNA SAB NTS 3728 1993/308, Memorandum by John Wright & Others: Purchase of Land in the Pietersburg District by South African Native Trust:2.

Ibid:3.

PNA SAB NTS 3728 1993/308, Die Kontroleur van Naturellenedersetters: Plase Balloon, Strassburg ens. Distrik Letaba, 1945 (provides a summary up to 1945 of the steps taken to buy certain farms; another 13 years of this kind of process can be read in the files).

PNA SAB NTS 3728 1993/308, Secretary for Native Affairs to Secretary for Lands, 18/11/1947.

PNA SAB NTS 3728 1993/308, Secretary for Native Affairs to Secretary for Lands re suggested excision of farms from released area no.33: Letaba, 18/11/47.

PNA SAB NTS 3729 1993/308, Trichardtsdal-Boerevereniging: Memorandum insake onderhandelings tussen die Dept van Naturellesake en Trichardtsdal Boerevereniging, 4 March 1954:4–5.

PNA SAB NTS 3728 1993/308, Memorandum, Native Affairs Department, by T Ramsay, 19/2/46.

PNA SAB NTS 3728 1993/308, Series of Telegrams: ‘Bakoni’ to ‘Natives Pretoria’ 22 April 1947; ‘Bakoni’ to ‘Natives Pretoria’ 12 May 1947; ‘Bakoni’ to ‘Natives Pretoria’ 19 April [year obscured but probably 1948].

Some examples: PNA SAB NTS 3728 1993/308, Native Commissioner, Duiwelskloof to Chief Native Commissioner, 27/9/1945; Chief Native Commissioner Pietersburg to Secretary of Native Affairs, Pretoria, 7 April 1948; Assistant Native Commissioner, Leydsdorp to Chief Native Commissioner, Pietersburg, 18/8/48.

PNA SAB NTS 3727 1993/308, Report, Native Affairs Commission, Letaba District. Native Evidence Tzaneen.

Ibid.

WHP, SAIRR collection, AD 843/RJ/Sb3.116, Rheinallt-Jones to Tindall, 31 August 1937.

PNA SAB NTS 3727 1993/308, Report, Native Affairs Commission, Letaba District, Native evidence, Leydsdorp area, 14/8/1937.

Ibid.

The original version of this report contained a typing error and stated ‘I do not feel …’. I have come to the conclusion that this was a typing error based on what followed in the rest of the paragraph, and also on what was written in Rheinallt-Jones's letter to Tindall, already quoted. Correspondence by NAD officials also makes it clear that they expected to use the farms to expand Mamathola's location.

WHP, SAIRR collection, AD 843/RJ/Sb3.116, ‘Historical Note’ by JD Krige.

PNA SAB NTS 3727 1993/308, Statement by Mr WC Mocke, Assistant Native Commissioner, Tzaneen.

PNA SAB NTS 3727 1993/308, Report, Native Affairs Commission, Letaba District, 11/12/1937.

PNA SAB NTS 3727 1993/308, Report, Native Affairs Commission, Letaba District, Native evidence, Leydsdorp area, 14/8/1937.