Enhancing Security of Tenure through Land Administration

In the first policy brief, we outlined the problem of off-register rights in South Africa and the challenge of finding appropriate ways to bridge the gap between the recordal and administration of typically common-law property rights on the one hand, and customary and other informal land rights on the other. In this policy brief, we discuss the concept of land administration and how it relates to tenure security, arguing that a well-functioning and coherent land administration system is in fact the necessary conduit for securing tenure. Secondly, we look at the key international approaches to addressing the problem of off-register rights and consider the suitability of these approaches to the South African contexts.