Laws and Policies

2022 Mine Community Resettlement Guidelines

The purpose of the Resettlement Guidelines is to provide guidelines to an applicant or a holder of a mining title in instances where, landowners, lawful occupiers, holders of informal and communal land rights, mine communities and host communities will be displaced or resettled from their land as a result of the mining operations. Click the …

How the laws link

Labour Tenancy

What is a labour tenant? A labour tenant is someone who works on a farm in exchange for the right to live on that farm and work a portion of that farm for themselves. For a more detailed definition, see Section 1(xi) of the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act 3 or 1996.

Restitution of Land Rights Amendment Act

The Restitution of Land Rights Act (No. 22 of 1994) was passed to great applause in 1994. Its goal was to offer a solution to people who had lost their land as a result of racially discriminatory practices such as forced removals. This included people who were dumped in Bantustans and put under traditional leaders. The …

Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA)

The Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (or SPLUMA) and Regulations The Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act 16 of 2013 (SPLUMA) is a national law that was passed by Parliament in 2013. The law gives the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) the power to pass Regulations in terms of …

The Interim Protection of Informal Land Right Act (IPILRA)

Background of IPILRA When the Constitution came into effect in 1996, it sought to restore what had been lost by recognising and protecting the underlying land rights of vulnerable people. It sought to give secure tenure to land for people that had been deprived for hundreds of years as a result of racist and sexist …

Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill (‘TKLB’)

UPDATE: FEBRUARY 2020: The Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act 3 of 2019 was signed into law by the President on 20 November 2019. This followed the processing of the Bill, as it then was, by both Houses of Parliament. Despite civil society and community based organisations speaking out against this law, the President subsequently proclaimed …

Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act (TLGFA)

The Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act (Act No 41 of 2003) is the first and pivotal law in the package of traditional leadership laws drafted during the 2000s. This package comprises the Communal Land Rights Act, several provincial traditional leadership laws and the Traditional Courts Bill. Enacted on 19 December 2003, some of the …

Communal Land Rights Act (CLaRA)

The Communal Land Rights Act was framed by the government as legislation that would offer redress to people “whose tenure of land is legally insecure as a result of past racially discriminatory laws or practices”, as proclaimed in Section 25 (6) of the Constitution. The law was enacted in 2004. However, as many rural people …

Traditional Courts Bill (TCB)

UPDATE: FEBRUARY 2021 On 2 December 2020 the Traditional Courts Bill (TCB) was passed by a plenary of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) – the version passed by the NCOP does not provide for opting out, ​which gives people the choice of where to take their matters, between traditional courts and Magistrates’ courts.  The current version …