Ben Cousins: South Africa Needs a Hybridised Form of Communal Land Ownership in Rural Areas

Speaking at an event hosted by SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) to examine the impact of traditional leadership on rural land reform, land expert, Prof. Ben Cousins of the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of Western Cape (PLAAS) contended that traditional leaders enter into deals with mining companies in the name of the community, but these deals are often private. The chiefs and their immediate family members benefit most from the deals with the broader community gaining few benefits.

He said that this is happening beyond mining in other areas such as tourism, agriculture and property development. For example, the Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela chief, Nyalala Pilane, is developing a R300m shopping mall using money that he has gained from platinum royalties.

Cousins argued that the land grab by traditional leaders is taking place with the connivance of government.

Cousins called for a new hybridised form of communal land ownership where custom would not be rejected, but made compatible with modern institutions -- and quite importantly where women would have equal rights.

About Ben Cousins:

Professor Ben Cousins holds a DST/NRF Chair in Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape. He holds a DPhil from the University of Zimbabwe, and was in exile between 1972 and 1991. His interests are land and agrarian reform, common property regimes, livestock production and smallholder agriculture.