Land tenure data in agriculture and rural development: A critical review of dualism in South Africa

South Africa has a range of land tenure systems, both formal and informal. Land administration in the "formal" areas is highly developed, and is based on a central deeds registry and sophisticated cadastral information systems. Much of the population residing within these areas, however, is invisible to the formal system, because it occupies informal settlements in urban areas or resides on commercial farms owned by others. In the areas of "informal" or communal tenure, formerly reserved for black occupation, apartheid-era land administration is in a state of collapse and a range of ad hoc solutions have taken its place. A unified land administration system for South Africa has yet to emerge. National and provincial government departments and the private sector generally have good access to formal tenure data, but much of local government has limited knowledge of the sources available and struggles to obtain the most basic tenure data for their areas of jurisdiction. Data on communal areas is widely scattered and generally of poor quality.