Resettled but not redressed: Land restitution and post‐settlement dynamics in South Africa

• Published in: Journal of agrarian change 2022-10, Vol.22 (4), p.722-739
• Main Author: Chitonge, Horman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Apartheid; Case studies; Colonialism; Concept formation; Inequality; Land; land claims; land dispossession; land restitution programme; Pain; post‐settlement; redress; Restitution; South Africa; Success; Victims
• ISSN: 1471-0358; 1471-0366
• DOI: 10.1111/joac.12493

Redressing the wrongs of the past has been a central theme in democratic South Africa. The land restitution programme was specifically intended to foster the process of redressing the loss and pain inflicted through racially motivated and violent dispossession of land. After more than two and half decades of implementing the land restitution programme, there are serious questions around how far this programme has contributed to redressing the injustices of the past. This paper, drawing from three land restitution case studies, illustrates that while many victims of colonial and apartheid land dispossession have been compensated, the land restitution process has scored limited success in redressing past injustices. The paper argues that the failure to substantively redress colonial and apartheid land dispossession is partly due to the narrow conceptualization of the restitution programme, which has emphasized procedural aspects, ignoring the need for meaningful redress of the victims of land dispossession. As a result of this, the land restitution programme has not fulfilled its transformative objectives of reconciliation, reconstruction, and reducing land inequalities in the country.