Land Restitution and Democratic Citizenship in South Africa. pp.545 - 562.

Abstract

Democratisation in South Africa empowered racial, religious, and liguistic groupings and indigenous peoples with the right to land estitution. The main purpose of this article is to evaluate the implications of communal property ownership for the restoration of land rights and the exercice of democeratic citizenship. Has restored land in communal form enabled returnee members of dispossessed communutities to reeceive justice for past abuses and to enjoy the benefits of property ownership? The new government's approach to communal restitution produced satisfactory legal results, but perpetuated perceptions of unified communities. Fildwork illustrates how contemporary communal arrangements affected Elandskloof of the Cedarberg in the Western Cape, the Tsitsikamma Mfengu and the village of Clarkson in the Eastern Cape, and the Richtersveld in the Northern Cape. These cases magnify similarities and differences in he reconstitution of community and the outcomes of restoration of land...