South Africa’s land reform programme: A case study of the relocation of the Stockenström community to Friemersheim in the Western Cape during the apartheid era

Abstract

This research places in context a proposed case study of land and property rights of a dispossessed Stockenström (Eastern Cape) community forcibly removed to Friemersheim (Western Cape) during the apartheid era, between 1985 and 1986. This dispossessed community has yet to receive appropriate compensation for that expropriation in the form of restoration of their property rights. This study examines the specifics of the legislative framework, which underpinned the circumstances of their land expropriation, as well as the pattern of land dispossession in South Africa during this era. To this end, it examines the impact of land-related apartheid legislation, which directly and indirectly influenced this community. It focuses on discussions, many of the parliamentary proclamations and statutes such as those passed in 1913, and beyond, which provided the legal context for large-scale land grabs, and contrasts these with the post-1994 land reformation programme. Finally, this research examines the practical implementation of the 1994 land reform programme, especially the component of restitution, with particular reference to the displaced Stockenström community who find themselves facing huge challenges in a democratic South Africa, even after they applied the new rights accorded to them in the land reform programme. It outlines the significance of the new legislative rights conferred on those dispossessed and tracks their land claims successes and failures.