Redistributing farmland to the landless in Fezile Dabi District Municipality: A synthesis of the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework

Abstract

When looking at South African land policy, one would agree there is a clear commitment to ensuring land ownership for the previously disadvantaged. South Africa’s 1996 Constitution is widely regarded as among the most progressive in the world in terms of its emphasis on human, social and economic rights. Despite this, many South Africans desiring land ownership and access through land redistribution instruments, generally struggle to do so. This study is a mixed-method study, through its survey and interviews, calls into question the criteria used for land redistribution in South Africa. Furthermore, it makes a case why landlessness should be prioritised in the allocation criteria. Because of its interest in livelihoods and capital asset framework of the poor, the study’s basic points have caused us to explain the meaning of landlessness using the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. However, the study believes the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework is not adequate to conceptualise landlessness; therefore, it comes up with a new conceptual framework to landlessness that is rooted in the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework The study uses Fezile Dabi District Municipality as a case study and, as a result, this process has now created an opportunity for the study to identify the broad typologies of landlessness which exist within the municipality. The thesis believes that considered holistically, the social and economic (tangible and intangible) assets of the rural poor will ensure that the land redistribution leg of South African land reform will achieve its main objective which is poverty alleviation.