Land reform has proceeded slowly in South Africa since the end of apartheid. The state is not meeting targets. For many black citizens who feel let down by sustained poverty, inequality and unemployment in the country, the slow pace of land reform is a symbolic focus of frustrations. In public discussions, consequent impatience drives anger, threats and fear. The risk that this critical state of affairs may lead to expropriation of land by the state or spur on land invasions, deters investment and slows economic growth, aggravating poverty, inequality and unemployment. At the centre of this circle of problems, tenure insecurity connects the parts and turns the wheel, dragging back land reform and development. Of the three main objectives of land reform, the first two, restitution and redistribution, depend on the third, namely security of tenure rights. South African land reform has been held back by weak social tenure rights, which land reform has reproduced. South African land administration is dominated by a Western theory of tenure rights, represented by the registered freehold title deed, by which a contract links a specific plot to a legal person. Such tenure rights are effectively secure. But the nested, layered, bundled, overlapping, negotiated social tenure arrangements of the majority of African citizens do not fit this individualistic model of title deeds. Neglected by the official system, social tenure arrangements remain relatively insecure. The imbalance in official recognition of land rights sustains colonial patterns of segregation and inequality. I outline an account of tenure rights, which accommodates a wider array of tenure arrangements, to align Western title deeds with African social tenures. This is needed in land reform if both title deeds and social tenures are to be afforded equal levels of security in land administration and reform. I show how this account improves on an influential alternative model of social tenures in the literature.

中文翻译：

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南非土地改革中的权属权利承认

自种族隔离制度结束以来，南非的土地改革进展缓慢。该州未达到目标。对于许多因该国持续的贫困，不平等和失业而感到失望的黑人公民而言，土地改革的缓慢步伐是挫败感的象征性焦点。在公开讨论中，随之而来的急躁情绪引发了愤怒，威胁和恐惧。这种危急状况可能导致国家征用土地或刺激土地入侵，阻碍投资并延缓经济增长，加剧贫困，不平等和失业的风险。在这一问题圈子的中心，权属不安全问题将各个部分联系起来，使方向盘转动，从而拖延了土地改革和发展。在土地改革的三个主要目标中，前两个是归还和再分配，这取决于第三个，即权属权利的保障。南非土地改革因弱小的社会土地使用权而受阻，土地权制得以复制。南非的土地管理以西方权属理论为主导，以注册的永久业权契据为代表，合同将特定土地与法人联系起来。此类权属权利得到有效保障。但是，大多数非洲公民的嵌套，分层，捆绑，重叠，协商的社会任期安排不符合这种个人主义的业权契约模式。被官方制度所忽视的社会任期安排仍然相对不安全。官方对土地权的承认不平衡，加剧了种族隔离和不平等的殖民格局。我概述了权属权利的说明，它涵盖了更广泛的权属安排，使西方的地契与非洲的社会制度保持一致。如果要在土地管理和改革中给所有权契据和社会任职权以同等水平的安全，则在土地改革中需要这样做。我将在文献中说明这种解释如何改善有影响力的社会任职模式。