Category: News

“New” land tenure model brings back unconstitutional CLaRA

The government is proposing a communal land tenure model that is a crude version of the model contained in the Communal Land Rights Act (CLaRA) of 2004, struck down by the Constitutional Court in 2010. This emerged at a workshop on “Redressing the legacy of the 1913 Land Act”, hosted by parliamentary portfolio committees at …

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Rural people remain in limbo waiting for CLaRA’s replacement

Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti’s comments at the Land Divided Conference in March 2013 triggered warning bells about the continued legal void regarding communal land tenure. This lacuna creates an environment where “people in rural communities are not able to have security of tenure, to have CPAs [Communal Property Associations] and …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.customcontested.co.za/rural-people-remain-in-limbo-waiting-for-claras-replacement/

Let the amaMpondo people decide who’s their king

South Africa has lost a king. Media reports tell of how 71-year-old King Mpondombini Sigcau, leader of the amaMpondo aseQaukeni, suffered a stroke and died in hospital less than a week later. His funeral was an official provincial event in the Eastern Cape and he was lauded by members of government, including President Jacob Zuma …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.customcontested.co.za/let-the-amampondo-people-decide-whos-their-king/

Constitutional Court’s finding against Pilane affirms rural people’s rights

Recently the Mail and Guardian’s legal columnist picked up on the importance of the Constitutional Court’s decision on 28 February 2013 to strike down a set of interdicts prohibiting meetings in the Bakgatla baKgafela traditional community of Mothlabe village in North West province. At stake in this case is far more than who has the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.customcontested.co.za/constitutional-courts-finding-against-pilane-affirms-rural-peoples-rights/

“Here I stand; I am my own chief”

Delegates at the Land Divided conference heard powerful pleas – and indictments – from rural representatives, which illuminated the implications of the re-entrenchment of apartheid-era traditional leadership arrangements. The delegates heard about two communities that successfully resisted the apartheid authorities’ attempts to declare them “black spots” subject to forcible removal, just to be confronted with …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.customcontested.co.za/here-i-stand-i-am-my-own-chief/

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