Queerying the land debate: a case for inclusivity

Abstract

This report presents the findings to a qualitative study which investigated the experiences of queer people with land in order to understand what such experiences say about South Africa’s post-apartheid land reform programme. The report drew on qualitative research conducted using semi-structured virtual/online interviews with 15 queer participants across six provinces (Gauteng, Kwazulu-Natal, Western Cape, Northern Cape, Free State, and North West). It concludes that queer relationships with land and land-based resources exists within a broader context informed by both historical and present realities; that access takes place within a contradictory context in which constitutional guarantees and progressively worded policies exist alongside a homophobic, transphobic, and heteronormative landscape. It argues that queer subjectivity informs and influences land use in ways that positively contribute to communities and the environment yet also inadvertently undermine the ability to take advantage of the government’ sland reform programme due to the nature of its design. It concludes that the conventional gender framework that government relies on to engender access for women is limited in its scope and fails to adequately engage with the particularities of queer identity thus leading to exclusion in the land reform programme that cuts across all three sub-programmes of restitution, redistribution, and tenure reform.