Project co-ordinator's perceptions to the implementation of land restitution in KwaZulu-Natal.
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Date
2017
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Abstract
In 1994 the South African democratic government introduced the Land Reform Programme
(LRP), which was aimed at redressing the imbalances of the colonial and apartheid past. The
LRP is designed to provide equitable redress to persons and communities that were
involuntarily dispossessed of land rights after 19 June 1913, as a result of past racially
discriminatory laws and practices. Of the four pillars of the LRP, land restitution is seldom a
matter of empirical inquiry. The purpose of this research, inter alia, is to explore the
implementation of land claims processing at the KwaZulu-Natal Regional Land Claims
Commission (RLCC) from the perspective of project co-ordinators who are front-line
researchers and preparers of claim settlement packages for review by the RLCC.
The study further inquired into the factors that facilitate or hinder these processes, how the
RLCC can assist project co-ordinators to meet target dates, and explored the perceptions of
project co-ordinators on the presidentially declared re-opening of the lodgement period for land
claims. This qualitative research design entails a case study strategy, is theoretically driven by
Lipsky’s (1980) theory of street-level bureaucracy, and is underpinned by the philosophical
worldview of social constructivism. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and
focus groups of project co-ordinators, along with documentary evidence. The findings show the
complexity of land claims processing implementation, the challenges of meeting target dates,
and the opportunities that the RLCC could use to assist project co-ordinators who are liaisons
between constitutional imperatives and the citizenry. Whilst the re-opening of lodgement of
claims advances land restitution, it also contributes to protracted land claim processing delays in
light of budgetary constraints and an ineffective performance management system that
demotivates project co-ordinators. Recommendations are made as to how implementation
processes can be improved, including the reinstatement of the legally mandated autonomy of
the National Commission on the Restitution of Land Rights.
Description
Master of Commerce in Public Administration. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2016.
Keywords
Theses - Public Administration.