Municipal Commonage: an Undervalued National Resource

[From Introduction] What is municipal commonage? There are two types of municipal commonage. The first is traditional commonage. This refers to land found adjacent to small towns that was granted by the state (mainly in the 1800s during the formal establishment of towns) for the use and benefits of residents and administered by the urban authority (Atkinson and Buscher, 2006). The second is new commonage that refers to land purchased after independence in 1994, by the former Department of Land Affairs (DLA) from commercial farmers as part of South Africa's land reform programme and handed over to the respective municipality to manage (DLA, 1997a). According to current national policy, the main aim of traditional commonage is to grant previously disadvantaged poor urban people (or newly migrated rural ones) access to land to supplement their income and enhance household food security (DLA, 1997b). In contrast, new commonage aims to make land available to emergent farmers from a disadvantaged background so that they can practice farming to improve their standard of living (DLA, 2002). The emergent farmer system is seen as a stepping-stone for farmers who want to produce for the market and eventually purchase their own land for commercial purposes (DLA, 2002). This policy brief will highlight the importance of municipal commonage in enhancing livelihoods of poor urban families. This will be followed by an overview of the role of municipal commonage in the land reform programme. Current challenges in securing benefits from municipal commonages are then outlined. Policy considerations to optimise benefits from commonages conclude the policy brief