Submission on the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Amendment Bill [B 6B - 2020] (s76)

Natural Justice (NJ) submits that while the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Amendment Bill is necessary to address the unconstitutionality of the 1991 Act—which discriminated against women by automatically converting tenure rights to ownership for men—the proposed mechanisms remain flawed. NJ argues that the reliance on Government Gazette notifications is unrealistic for rural women and that the top-down state-led arbitration process ignores local family-level tenure structures. The submission calls for the permanent adoption of the Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act and a shift toward local knowledge-based tenure determination.

• The Amendment Bill was prompted by the case of Rahube v Rahube and Others, where the Constitutional Court confirmed that section 2(1) of the 1991 Act was unconstitutional because it automatically converted tenure rights to ownership, which "perpetuated Apartheid-era discrimination as tenure rights could only vest in males and not women."
• The proposed notification process via the Government Gazette is deemed impractical for the target demographic, as NJ asserts it is "entirely out of touch with the reality of most of the women who might be impacted by this Act" who may lack regular access to such publications.
• The Bill's mechanism for determining tenure is criticized for being a top-down model that prioritizes individual applications and state arbitration over "local processes and knowledge" and existing family-level tenure structures.
• There is a lack of transparency regarding the implementation of the Bill, specifically that no one has seen the draft Socio-economic Impact Assessment (SEIA) and there is no information on how the Minister's required inquiries into objections will be funded.
• The submission expresses concern over the legal uncertainty in KwaZulu Natal, specifically whether the Ingonyama Trust would be considered an 'owner' under the Act, which could allow it to "obstruct future localized tenure upgrades."
• Natural Justice recommends that the Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act be made permanent to help mitigate the lack of an effective land recordal and registration system.

APA

Natural Justice (2021). Submission on the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Amendment Bill [B 6B - 2020] (s76). https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Submission-on-the-Upgrading-of-Land-Tenure-Rights-Amendment-Bill.pdf

Chicago

Natural Justice. Submission on the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Amendment Bill [B 6B - 2020] (s76). 2021. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Submission-on-the-Upgrading-of-Land-Tenure-Rights-Amendment-Bill.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Natural Justice |title=Submission on the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Amendment Bill [B 6B - 2020] (s76) |date=22 March 2021 |url=https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Submission-on-the-Upgrading-of-Land-Tenure-Rights-Amendment-Bill.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{naturaljustice2021submission, author = {{Natural Justice}}, title = {{Submission on the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Amendment Bill [B 6B - 2020] (s76)}}, institution = {Natural Justice}, year = {2021}, month = mar, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Submission-on-the-Upgrading-of-Land-Tenure-Rights-Amendment-Bill.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }