Land Redistribution: A Thorny Issue towards Reconciliation in a Post Apartheid South Africa: A Practical Theological Perspective

Abstract

South Africa is a country with a history of racial divides and those divides are still visible today. One of the many issues that characterise such divisions is inequality with regard to land ownership. The bigger part of the land is still owned by the minority white people while the blacks, who are the majority; or previously disadvantaged people, are still landless. This is evident from the escalation of informal settlements in areas surrounding the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria, which have millions of black people cramped into small areas in shacks while most whites are enjoying large portions of land with few people to live on it. Many black people even lack land for shelter. On the other hand, the message of reconciling the country is being made loud to both who has the land and those who do not have it. Therefore, it becomes a serious challenge to imagine and look for reconciling strategies while these two camps still have this unresolved issue. The dilemma that is faced with is how will the different camps embrace the same message while they remain in these different situations. It is argued in this article that justice on the land issue should be first attended to so that it serves as a door to reconciliation.