INFORMAL LAND RIGHTS: COMMUNAL LAND TENURE BILL UPDATE

INFORMAL LAND RIGHTS: COMMUNAL LAND TENURE BILL UPDATE

• 13 October 2025
• Agriculture, Land Reform & Rural Development
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: On 5 March 2026, Land Reform & Rural Development Minister Mzwanele Nyhontso said his department ‘intends to have the Bill introduced in Parliament in 2027’. Responding to questions from Economic Freedom Fighters MP Nthako Matiase, the Minister blamed the absence of a ‘clear policy’ on communal land ‘approved by the executive’ for ongoing delays in finalising the Bill.

A draft Communal Land Tenure Bill released in July 2017 for public comment is expected to have been tabled in Parliament by the end of August 2026. This is according to a Department of Rural Development & Land Reform briefing document presented in June 2025 to the National Assembly committee concerned. Meanwhile, the department has gazetted a notice extending the application of provisions in the 1996 Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act by another year.

Among other things, the briefing document and a Parliamentary Monitoring Group report on the meeting’s proceedings refer to:

• the ‘legislative gap’ created by an October 2018 Constitutional Court ruling on sub-section 2(1) of the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Act (thus ‘undermining tenure security, ownership rights, and local development’), and
• the draft Bill’s processing timeline, which includes:
  • another opportunity for public comment; and
  • consultations in the National Economic Development & Labour Council.

Once finalised, the Bill is expected to:

• apply uniformly nationwide
• provide for the transfer of state-held trust land to occupying communities and individuals
• enable formal ownership registration
• introduce measures to ensure ‘comparable redress for historically excluded groups’
• establish ‘democratic land governance structures’, including:
  • land administration committees, and
  • community rules developed with local participation, and
• facilitate the provision of municipal services on communal land.

A November 2023 SA Legal academy report providing further insights into the complexities of dealing with informal property rights includes a link to the 2018 Constitutional Court ruling.

• Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Act, as amended (SAFLII)
• Government Gazette notice extending application of 1996 Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act
• June 2025 departmental briefing document
• November 2023 SA Legal Academy report

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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