Land Reform, Restitution and Entitlement in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Leyshon, Donald John (2009), Journal of Southern African Studies,Volume 35, Issue 3, pp 755-768
As a land lawyer having a familiarity with South African law, I have tended to be somewhat cautious in believing in the ability of land reform to sweep away oppressive conditions. This touch of scepticism stems more, however, from my own Scottish family history than from my South African experiences. As an adolescent in Glasgow, I would listen to my grandmother speak of her life before the 1914–18 war on the remote Scottish Hebridean island of South Uist. One of her most striking stories goes back to 1902 when she was playing with her younger sister in the house while the rest of the family buried her father in the island cemetery. Later that same day, when the grieving widow and her nine children were gathered about the only fire in the house, a close male relative entered the tiny dwelling and threw a bucket of cold water on the fire. As the flames fizzled out he spoke roughly in his native Scottish Gaelic tongue to my great-grandmother and told her to get out of the house as it now belonged to him. My great-grandmother and all of her nine children were evicted from their smallholding on the day of the funeral by one of their own kind and not by representatives of the absentee, English-speaking Lady Gordon-Cathcart, who held the feudal title to most of the island. My great-grandfather had been a crofter, which meant that he was a secure tenant of the smallholding he farmed on South Uist. Under the laws at that time, however, his tenancy could not pass to his only son who was under-age. The nearest male relative was able to succeed to the tenancy and, as a result, a family lost their home, their livelihood and their ability to live together under one roof. Download Publication»
Single Farm Payment Entitlements as Bank Collateral in Scotland
Leyshon, Donald John (2010)
This will be an 800 word Business Briefing for the magazine LandBusiness (June 2010 issue) which is published by the Scottish Rural Property & Business Association (SRPBA).