David Anaafo, University of Energy and Natural Resources
Reforms to land policies and regulations are enabling the traditional custodians of the land in Ghana to transfer ownership. Communal land users could lose their basic rights.
Trevor Ngwane, an activist and academic, shows how structures that emerged in the struggle against apartheid continue in democratic South Africa, now in conflict with the ruling ANC.
Denying people the right to opt out of the traditional court system conflicts with the notion of customary law as a voluntary and consensual system of law.
The unstable authoritarian pathway that many post-colonial African states followed was facilitated by the way in which European empires undermined democratic elements within African societies.
The IFP’s constitution provides that the nomination of national office bearers be approved by the branches. But this was not done in the nomination of its new president.
The contested law also defines the jurisdiction of traditional leaders in terms of territory. But traditional community boundaries are actually set by personal relationships.
The clash over South Africa’s Traditional Courts Bill is essentially about custom and constitutionalism. The government is often seen as pandering to traditional leaders’ whims.