Women still need a man's name to get communal land, MPs told

Women applying for communal land in rural South Africa are still routed through a husband, a father, a brother or a son, or through the goodwill of a headman, the Portfolio Committee on Land Reform and Rural Development heard on 14 October.

The Commission for Gender Equality brought three studies to the committee, two on women’s access to communal land and one on women’s participation in the economy. The land work followed complaints from women in the provinces who said they could not secure land to build a home, grow food or start a business. The commission then went to seven provinces: the Eastern Cape, North West, Limpopo, the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape.

Commissioner Muro Neatheni, who led the delegation, told MPs the land question in South Africa is usually discussed in terms of race, and that doing so hides the gender-specific barrier. Dr Jamela Basani, head of research at the commission, set out the findings.

In the Eastern Cape, the cost of acquiring land was found to be prohibitive for women who are unemployed and economically marginalised. Reported prices ranged from R100 to R100,000. Community members said applicants were sometimes expected to slaughter a sheep or a chicken, or provide brandy and beer, to secure land. Land closer to towns and new villages sold at higher prices than land in traditional rural areas, and participants said the criteria for pricing were obscure.

In North West, the basic requirements for applying were an identity document, a birth certificate or a marriage certificate. Waiting periods differed from village to village, and some applicants had been waiting more than a decade without an answer or a reason for the delay. Access fees in some villages were as low as R500, with additional levies from time to time, and people who were not part of the local ethnic group were charged more. Land for business purposes was provided at no cost. Senior traditional leaders were found to decide who receives land, and its location, timing and size.

The commission’s follow-up investigation into traditional land allocation in North West found entrenched gender bias applied without a codified policy, producing different rules, prices and waiting times from one village to the next. It recommended that the national department formalise allocation procedures through clear policies that address gender bias, set up review and appeal mechanisms, and require data disaggregated by age, gender, disability and marital status.

The commission also wants Parliament to revisit land tenure legislation, either through an amended Communal Land Rights Act or through new legislation.

Basani described how land registration through permission to occupy remains entrenched in patriarchal norms. A newly married woman may be required to re-register land she acquired while single in her husband’s name. A divorced woman may be expected to leave the land. A widow’s land may be transferred to her husband’s brother on his death. The commission noted that exclusion is often justified as protecting marriages and families, and that the justification sits badly beside the data showing that most South African households, rural, urban and peri-urban, are headed by women.

In KwaZulu-Natal, women were found to face high unemployment, deep poverty and rising population pressure in some areas, with many young women reliant on child support grants. In Mpumalanga, the lack of a title deed was found to prevent women from securing a bank loan or investor support, and corruption and unofficial fees added to the strain. In the Free State, government initiatives meant to promote women’s access to land were described as helping only women who are already established and financially secure in agriculture.

Across the provinces, the commission found that land is often treated as a social rather than an economic asset, used for household food rather than scaled up for the market, and that gender roles expect women to put domestic duties before business. In the Northern Cape, village-born residents were favoured over migrants and younger people.

The third study, on women’s participation in the economy, drew on a time use survey and found that unpaid care work and gender-based violence pull women out of the labour market. Basani told MPs that nearly half of South African women of working age were recorded as economically inactive in the 2022 Quarterly Labour Force Survey, and that black women face the most severe wage gaps, with an unemployment rate of 40%. She said women earn around 75% to 76% of what men earn.

The commission’s recommendations to the department include monitoring the legal framework in communities, building national, provincial and local indicators with disaggregated data, and formalising informal land rights agreements. It also wants customary law harmonised with the Constitution, and the Commission for Gender Equality itself to push for more women in senior traditional leadership roles.

The committee did not conclude its engagement in the portion of the sitting carried in the published broadcast. The studies and their recommendations now sit with MPs, who have not yet said what they will do with them.

The full sitting was published by Parliament of South Africa (YouTube) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Spp-t-3m3do.