Dispossession and Access to Land in South Africa. An African Perspective: An African Perspective

Preface

[ix] Preface new book on land law in the new constitutional dispensation in South Africa from an African perspective is to be welcomed. The book consists of 8 chapters and is 140 pages in length. Dr Yanou has based his book on material submitted for his doctoral thesis at Rhodes University in 2005 entitled Access to Land as a Human Right: The Payment of Just and Equitable Compensation for Dispossessed land in South Africa. Yanou traces the notion of dispossession from the Frontier Wars of the 19th Century in the Eastern Cape in which the Chiefs who participated lost not only their chieftainships but also large tracts of ancestral land. This was followed by dispossession that occurred during the apartheid era of land removals, particularly as a result of the notorious Land Act of 1913. He also discusses various land tenure reform legislation. Yanou argues that, in a country like South Africa that lost most of its ancestral land during colonialism and apartheid, access to land for the dispossessed should not be equated with the protection of property acquired under apartheid. He also touches on the controversial issue of aboriginal title in the light of case law. On this topic the reader should also see the following: G Pienaar “Aboriginal Title of Indigenous Ownership: What is in a Name? (2)” 2006 THRHRI; T.W Bennett & C.H. Powell “Restoring Land: The Claims of Aboriginal Title, Customary Law and the Right to Culture” 2005 Stellenbosch Law Review 431. Yanou covers in detail the controversial question of compensation. I believe that no “last word” has yet been written on the issue. See also A.J. van der Walt “Reconciling the State’s Duties to Promote Land Reform and to Pay ‘Just and Equitable’ Compensation for Expropriation” (2006) 123 SALJ 23. The book reviews diverse issues related to the phenomena of dispossession such as the notion of land invasions, which have been a subject of protracted litigation in post-apartheid South Africa, women’s access to land and the Bhe Case. This well-written book covers case law up to 2005 and should be commended for being so thoroughly researched. Professor R B Mqeke Faculty of Law Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa A ...