Can sacred cows be culled? A historical review of land policy in South Africa, with some questions about the future
- 1 August 1987
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Development Southern Africa
- Vol. 4 (3) , 388-400
- https://doi.org/10.1080/03768358708439331
Abstract
This paper reviews the history of the development of land policy in South Africa, highlighting episodes occurring during the last hundred years, such as the Glen Grey Act, the British take‐over of the Transvaal, Union, the 1913 and 1936 Land Acts, Betterment Planning, the Tomlinson Commission, and the unfolding of the homelands policy. While the Land Acts are seen to have had a disastrous effect upon agriculture in South Africa, it is argued that in present circumstances it would be safer to seek to repeal the Group Areas Act and to open up white areas to all races, than to repeal the Land Acts in tote. This would increase black mobility, whereas without this proviso, black people in rural areas might find themselves displaced by land reforms, such as might follow from the abolition of the Land Acts.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- CRISIS AND CATHARSIS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CAPITALISM IN SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTUREAfrican Affairs, 1985
- Soil erosion, conservationism and ideas about development: a Southern African exploration, 1900–1960Journal of Southern African Studies, 1984
- The restructuring of agrarian class relations in a colonial economy: the Orange River Colony, 1902–1910Journal of Southern African Studies, 1979