Women, Gender Policy and land reform in South Africa

Abstract

This article examines the gender policy of the Department of Land Affairs (DLA) and progress since 1994 in giving content to women's land rights in practice in two major sub-programmes of land reform: land redistribution and communal tenure reform. The article reviews the constitutional negotiations around gender equality and cultural rights between 1993 and 1996. It then summarizes the extent to which the DLA's land redistribution programme has formally targeted women since 1994. It further examines the effectiveness of the DLA's formal Gender Policy in practice, using the KwaZulu Natal provincial office and three of its land redistribution projects as case studies, and considers the treatment of women's land rights in the struggle around the enactment of the Communal Land Rights Act in 2004. Although serious shortcomings in the management and conceptualization of the DLA's Gender Policy are evident, alongside a lack of consensus in society more broadly on the content of gender equality in social policy, it concludes that comparing the current conjuncture to that prevailing in 1993/94 illuminates certain gains. Significant here is the consolidation of the legitimacy of the principle of gender equality, which is not without effect on social relations on the ground.

Notes

1. Bhe and others v Magistrate, Khayalitsha.

2. While Judge Ngcobo agreed in his minority judgment that the right to gender equality is fundamental in the Constitution, he argued that any modification of the rules of succession must respect their primary purpose, which is to preserve the family unit, and recognize that ‘a majority of Africans have not forsaken their traditional cultures’ (Paragraph 228) – hence, in his view, the problem lies not with the principle of primogeniture itself, but with the exclusion of female descendants from the responsibilities of succession in families where the eldest surviving child of the deceased is a girl.

3. I have not researched the application of gender policy in the land restitution sub-programme (for those dispossessed of land rights after 1913) nor in the area of tenure reform for farm dwellers; there is, however, little reason to assume more effective implementation in either. Space also does not permit a discussion on the gendered nature of land demand in South Africa, an issue deserving of more in-depth research.

4. For further discussion see Walker 2005.

5. Interview with female official who worked on the pilot programme in KwaZulu Natal. Interviews mentioned in this article were conducted between 2001 and 2002 as part of a research project under the auspices of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). Interviewees are not identified to respect their privacy.

6. Thoko Didiza, formerly an activist in the Women's National Coalition.

7. See Department of Land Affairs, KwaZulu Natal, File KNA/4/4/1 (Mahlabathini case file, Ladysmith District Office), File KNA/4/2/24 (Ntabeni case file, Ladysmith District Office) and File KNA/7/1/3 (The Gorge case file, Port Shepstone District Office).

8. The role of tribal authorities was unresolved at the time of the 2000 local government elections but the ANC succeeded in postponing the issue till after the elections. The Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act (2003) charted a compromise course, providing for a partial democratization of the renamed Traditional Councils, including that 40 per cent of members be elected and 30 per cent be women.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cherryl Walker

Cherryl Walker is Professor of Sociology at the University of Stellenbosch. She was previously Chief Research Specialist in the Human Sciences Research Council and has worked on land and gender issues in a number of different capacities, including as Regional Land Claims Commissioner in KwaZulu Natal between 1995 and 2000.