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South Africa's Land Reform Programme., Andre J. Groenewald

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

South Africa is committed to land reform.  Because land is what shapes our national identity, the land dispossession of black people by the hand of white colonizers shapes the importance of land reform in South Africa. After the Natives’ Land Act of 1913, rights to own, rent, or even sharecrop land in South Africa depended upon a person’s racial classification. This was furthered by the Native Trust and Land Act of 1936. In 1994, however, the new government passed a Land Restitution Act. The land reform policy, Reconstruction and Development Programme, aimed to redress the injustices of apartheid, foster national …