Women have fewer rights to access land for homesteads and businesses in rural South Africa than men. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
Women have fewer rights to access land for homesteads and businesses in rural South Africa than men, stunting their economic independence, a new study says.
The report by the Commission for Gender Equality, which focuses on the barriers women face when accessing communal land in North West, Limpopo and Eastern Cape, says they are more likely to experience land tenure insecurity than men. Patriarchal laws favour men’s access to communal land and affordability also hinders women from accessing it.
“Unequal access to land hampers efforts to achieve gender equity, economic growth, social development and the mitigation of gendered impacts of climate change,” it says.
In the Eastern Cape, women own 26% of the land, compared to men who own 53%, while the remainder is owned by non-binary people. Similarly, in the North West, women own 28% of land, versus 46% for men and 26% for non-binary individuals.
In Limpopo, 33% of the land belongs to women, compared with 51% for men, while non-binary people own 16%.
Cultural practices differ across these regions but, even in those areas where women are not excluded from the community governing committees which make decisions on land access and allocation, they still experience gender bias and do not occupy as many key traditional lands as men do, said Naledi Selebano, the acting head of research at the Commission for Gender Equality.
Men, be they brothers, husbands or fathers, still have the final say.
“There were very few head women generally, but also some of the participants would share where they come from — in the villages, women are not at all eligible to serve as traditional leaders. So, there were villages where there were no women at all in these structures, when they existed,” Selebano said.
In one Eastern Cape case, Selebano said, a 30-year-old woman living with her parents and running a small farm tried for seven years to get a lease so she could operate her own farm, but was not permitted to do so.
“She said it is even more difficult as an unmarried woman who does not have children. So, when you are unmarried and do not have a child, you are at the bottom of the pyramid.
“She said her brother, who was also unmarried, had not experienced the same situation. He went and applied and was granted access to land. And, in her case, she was denied,” Selebano related.
In some instances, a woman’s father has to provide written consent if she wants to buy land.
In North West, decision-making powers are vested in senior traditional leaders and the royal house, while cultural norms also limit women’s access to land.
Selebano said there was a “pyramid structure” which determined who got land first.
“At the very top of the pyramid you must be the first-born male child and then, if you are unmarried, and as a man, you have to be 40 years of age. While married men could be of any age, married women would be represented by their husbands, while an unmarried woman would have to be represented by their elder in the family.”
One participant in the study said these norms were meant to subjugate women.
“Even with us being represented in the council committees, it takes a lot of convincing that you can do the job. In the Bafokeng (a tribe in the North West), for starters, we have never seen a traditional leader, chief or headman who is female,” she said.
“This shows you that women are not valued or given equal opportunities [to men]. Also, women are still expected to sit down and conduct themselves with dignity. When men talk in meetings, women are not allowed to participate freely, hence I still believe that my place as a woman is still in the kitchen, as I am treated as such here …”
Younger women are fighting against these norms and trying to occupy more spaces where they, too, can make decisions about access to land and ownership for women, Selebano said.
In Limpopo, the study says, the royal house, the traditional council, the village committee and the headmen from the respective communities make the decisions for land allocation.
While some people have to wait two years to get land, others have waited longer and often the land is given to someone else, and the headman benefits financially. The study states that this is one example of an economic barrier women face when trying to get access to land.
“Due to these money-making schemes, women who have often been allocated stands were taken advantage of, especially if you are a solo woman, because a stand will be allocated to you and a man at the same time, and they would know that a man will overpower you because you’re just an unmarried woman or a single woman in this context,” Selebano said.
“Some women had to resort to living with their boyfriends. They said that was a form of security, to say, at least as a male figure is in the residence, so they will not be taken advantage of.”
The South African Constitution, laws and land reform policies aim to ensure that people are not discriminated against based on sex or race but cultural norms still get in the way.
“While we have such progressive legislation, we [the Commission for Gender Equality] also say that women’s access to communal land is interconnected with other important issues of women and gender equality. These include, but are not limited to, the unequal burden of unpaid reproductive labour of women; their rights to equality in marriage and in family relations; their sexual and reproductive health rights and the role of patriarchy in perpetuating violence and structural oppression against women,” Selebano said.
The commission has appealed to the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development to ensure that legislative reforms related to communal land are introduced and implemented and that traditional leaders and community leaders enable women’s access to land and land ownership.
“The legislative reforms must address existing challenges of patriarchal practices, gender discrimination and exclusions that are currently being justified under the guise of cultural beliefs and norms which subjugate women and queer persons,” Selebano said.