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INFORMAL LAND RIGHTS: COMMUNAL LAND TENURE BILL UPDATE
- 13 October 2025
- Agriculture, Land Reform & Rural Development
- SA Legal Academy
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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