Land and housing rights in South Africa and their compatibility with international human rights norms

The April 1994 elections in South Africa, which witnessed the ANC gain a determinant majority in national government, shifted the struggle in that country from national liberation and enfranchisement to economic empowerment for the black majority. The South African Government, facing millions of restitution of land claims and a national demand for effective access to land and adequate housing, has had to elaborate concrete legal implementation mechanisms to deliver land and housing for the majority of the population. Constitutionalism, through the entrenchment of land rights in a bill of rights, and the creation of a national socio-economic program to meet the basic needs of landless and homeless South Africans (Reconstruction and Development Program or RDP), have been the methods favored by the Government of National Unity (GNU) to address land and housing issues in the new South Africa. Strong pressure has been put on Mandela's Government to bring about fundamental economic and social transformation. The GNU presently has the responsibility to ensure a speedy advance with its programs of housing and land redistribution and restitution. The international instruments on economic and social rights have inspired Chapter 3 of the Interim Constitution, which contains a Bill of Rights, as well as the drafting of the Reconstruction and Development Program. Although these two national legal documents guarantee substantial economic and social rights, the difficulty that lies ahead is the establishment of a process to implement these entitlements. The socio-economic transformation that will take place in South Africa in the coming years will serve as a test-case and will hopefully encourage legal scholars and practitioners to become more sensitive to the importance of designing delivery mechanisms for these rights. With the high level of expectations and violence experienced in South Africa's rural and urban areas, a great deal is at stake in relation to land reform and