Promised Land (review)

Land redistribution has loomed as one of the biggest postapartheid challenges in South Africa. The forced removal of black South Africans under the 1913 Land Act and the subsequent apartheid-era Group Areas Act left the vast majority of land in the ownership of whites. In 1994, the postapartheid government instituted a land claims process through which black South Africans could make formal claims to land from which they or their ancestors had been dispossessed. The government promised to redistribute 30% of the land within ten years through this process. Promised Land opens with the statement that ten years after the end of apartheid, black South Africans had filed 22,000 land claims but less than 3% of the land had been transferred to those previously dispossessed. Whites continued to hold 87% of the land. The government's policy during the first ten years was based on a "willing buyer, willing seller" model that avoided the route of forced evictions and involuntary dispossessions. The film makes clear that this market-based approach to land reform has failed and follows two land claims that marked a change in the government's approach. The 1998 Mekgoreng claim was filed by a black community to land currently owned by over 200 white landowners, and the Molamu claim was filed by one extended family to land currently owned by four white landowners. Both cases offer revealing but troubling lessons in the complexities and contradictions of land reform.

White landowners in the Mekoreng claim argue that the black claimants are lying about their historic presence in the area. The Mekgoreng land claim rests on the basis of one historic letter of eviction, the existence of a 103-year-old black man who was born in the area, and the graves of the ancestors of black community members, but is opposed by the white landowning community, who instead would like to evict all the current black residents. One of the white landowners claims he has title deeds that trace his family's ownership of the land back to the 1850s, which predates the 1913 land act. Another white landowner, Roger Roman, joins with the black claimants against the white landowners who oppose the claim and embarks on a hunger strike to bring national attention to the claim. His protest attracts the intervention of the government, which intercedes to support the claimants and promises to pay for the transfer of the title deeds. In its coverage of this particular case, the film features informative commentary by Philip Rafedile and Solly Selibi, the two black leaders of the Mekoreng claim, who, together with Roman, offer clarifying commentary about the injustices of the past and interdependence of land reform with post-apartheid reconciliation.

The Molemu land claim is filed by the ancestors of a single black man who was able to acquire land in 1895. His sons were forced to sell their land under the Group Areas Act in the 1940s. Three of the white landowners agree to sell their land to the claimants, but one refuses. He argues that since the previous black owners sold their land and kept the proceeds from the sale, it should not be eligible for a contemporary land claim. The claimants argue that the dispossession was an involuntary forced sale under non-negotiable terms, the proceeds from which were too paltry to buy new land. When negotiations break down, the government intervenes and expropriates the land from the remaining white landowner, who is also not allowed to keep the meatpacking business he built on the land. The expropriation makes national news since it is the first in the country after then-President Mbeki decides to abandon the willing buyer, willing seller model.

Both cases raise difficult questions about the trajectory, rationale, evidence, and justice of land reform. The Mekoreng cases juxtaposes recorded white history against oral black history, revealing the substantial challenges involved in researching and legitimizing land claims. The fact that one white landowner can trace his family's ownership to 1850 raises the question of the relevance...