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Chapter 5 - Land and Housing

Introduction

Until 1991, apartheid laws kept most of the land in South Africa for whites. These laws took away the rights of Africans, coloureds, and Indians to own, rent and live on the land. For example:

• The Land Acts of 1913 and 1936 said that African people could only live on or own land in a few 'black areas'. These areas were the black townships and the rural Trust land.
• The government used most of the Trust land to create the 'homelands'.
• The South African Development Trust owned the rest of the Trust land and the Department of Development Aid controlled and ran it.
• The Group Areas Act of 1966 divided towns and cities (apart from the townships) into group areas for whites, coloureds and Indians. If the police caught you living in the wrong area, you could be charged in a criminal court.
• Low income housing developments were tucked away on the outskirts of towns and cities - far away from places of work and other urban opportunities. Today we still have this problem poor people end up spending a lot of money on transport getting to work, places of entertainment and other resources.
• The Group Areas Act said the rest of South Africa was a 'controlled area', mostly farmland. Usually only whites owned land in the 'controlled area'. If you were not classified white you could not even live on 'white' farmland unless you were a farm worker, a dependant of a farm worker, a labour tenant, a tenant, a servitude holder or a 'precarious occupier'.

Until 1986 there were many 'influx control laws'. They were also called the 'pass laws'. These laws stopped African people from owning or living on land in the towns and cities outside the 'homelands'. The idea was to give Africans political rights in the 'homelands' and to try to keep them out of the rest of South Africa. But many people still came to the cities, and lived there 'illegally'.

In 1986 the government scrapped the influx control laws. Even more people moved to the cities. They struggled to find land and usually had to live in shacks.

The Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act of 1951 was a very harsh law, used for forced removals of squatter communities. It gave landowners, local authorities and government officials many ways of evicting people or of breaking down their houses to get them off the land.

The Health Act of 1977, the Slums Act of 1979, and health and slum control regulations under the Black Local Authorities Act of 1982 were also used to break down buildings, take away land and arrest people living there, on the grounds that the buildings or land were unsafe, unhealthy, overcrowded or falling apart.

Apartheid and all its evil laws are gone now. But we are still left with the results of those laws. Thousands of people still need land to live on and to use productively. Everywhere we have a huge shortage of housing. One of the reasons for this is that the apartheid government did not want African people in the cities, so they did not build enough houses for Africans in the cities. They built hostels for workers, but very little family accommodation.

Buckling under pressure in the late 1980s the previous government admitted that there was a crisis. But they said that they could not provide all the houses. Big businesses had to help. But businesses always want to make a profit, so the houses they built were expensive. Many of the houses were also of a poor quality, so many people today still have problems with houses that were badly built by private companies. In protest, people stopped paying their bonds and service charges.

The banks lost a lot of money during this time. That is one of the reasons why the banks are now very reluctant to lend money to poor people for housing.

Land and housing under the new Constitution    

See CONSTITUTION & BILL OF RIGHTS Section 25: Property
See CONSTITUTION & BILL OF RIGHTS Section 26: Right of access to housing

The new Constitution of South Africa guarantees certain rights to all people. It guarantees the right to have access to housing. It also says the government must pass laws and take steps, within its available resources, to ensure that people have access to land, housing and security of tenure in their houses. That means that the government acknowledges that everybody has the rights to these things. And although it is not practical to ensure that everybody gets a house or land immediately, the government is committed to help people to do this over time. This is called a progressive right.

We can also see this commitment in the new Land and Housing policies. Both policies say that the government is committed to prioritising, above all, those people who have suffered in the past under apartheid and who had no access to land and housing.

The Land Policy and the Housing Policy also makes provision for financial assistance in the form of housing subsidies and grants. It is meant to help landless and homeless people get land and housing.

In its policies the government is saying that it is committed to:

• the return of land or other compensation to communities who were forcibly removed
• the return of land which was taken over or 'bought' by the apartheid government
• and for the urban homeless
• the improvement of both rural and urban land and housing
• making housing affordable

The constitution also says that all levels of the state, that is the national government, the provincial governments and the local authorities will be committed to these goals. All three levels of the state must work together to assist those most in need to get housing and land.

Laws that apply to land and housing

NOTE !
This chapter was written and published in May 2002. So any changes to the laws after this date will not be reflected in the text. We note areas where there may be changes to the law, for example, where parliament is still debating a bill. We will also do an update to the laws and information in this chapter every year.

Some of the laws to do with land, tenure and housing that the government has passed since 1994 are:

Development Facilitation Act No 67 of 1995

This Act makes it possible to speed up land development, especially the provision of serviced land for low-income housing. It can help poor people, in that it makes it easier for local authorities to provide land and services faster.

Changes to the law

A number of provinces have adopted their own planning and development facilitation laws. The Development Facilitation Act will soon be replaced by a new spatial development law.

Interim Protection of informal Land Rights Act No 31 of 1996

This Act aims to protect people with insecure tenure from losing their rights to land while land reform is being introduced.

Changes to the law

This Act will soon be replaced by a new communal land rights law. The current Communal Land Rights Bill proposes different forms of land tenure to help people living in old 'homelands'.

Communal Property Associations Act No 28 of 1996

This Act enables communities or groups to acquire, hold and manage property under a written constitution.

Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act No 3 of 1996

This Act protects the rights of labour tenants and provides for them to acquire permanent land to live and work on.

Extension of Security of Tenure Act No 62 of 1997

This Act gives people who lived on someone else's land on or after 4 February 1997 with permission from the owner, a secure legal right to carry on living on and using that land. It specifies clearly what the landlord must do before he or she can evict a tenant.

Housing Act No 107 of 1997

This Act makes provision for all the different levels of the state and various other bodies to assist those most in need to get housing.

The Rental Housing Act 50 of 1999

This Act came into effect on the 1st August 2000. It deals with the relationship between landlords and tenants and it applies to all written or verbal lease agreements entered into on or after 1 August 2000.

See The Rental Housing Act

Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act No 19 of 1998

This Act sets out how land can be orderly occupied. It explains when unlawful occupiers can be evicted and how to prohibit unlawful eviction. This Act repeals the Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act of 1951.

The Transformation of Certain Rural Areas Act No 94 of 1998

This Act aims to allow for the transfer of 1.7 million hectares of land to the communities consisting of 70 000 people in the former 'coloured reserves' in the Western Cape, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and Free State.

See Land grants
See Housing subsidies