Prospects for Negotiation as a Means of Undoing the Gordian Knot of Just Land Reform in South Africa

Creative and courageous negotiations between 1990 and 1994 enabled South African leaders to end apartheid and manage the first phase of a transition to a constitutional democracy. Land was a key issue in the struggle for democracy, but after thirty years remains unresolved. The Bill of Rights in the Constitution affords protection for property rights but also commits the government to land reform by way of restitution or redress of the disadvantaged who suffered through dispossession following the 1913 Land Act. The failure of government’s three-track system to deliver on the goals it set for transfer of land from white to black ownership has strengthened demands for radical change. This article explores the prospects of negotiation as a means for resolving obstacles to progress, including the problem of competing notions of justice. New levels of engagement between stakeholders enabling a sense of justness in the process and outcome are required.