Bernadette Atuahene & Sanele Sibanda, From Reparations to Dignity Restoration: The Story of the Popela Community, 18 AFR. HUM. Rts. L.J. 654 (2018).
Abstract
In certain circumstances property takings are part of a larger strategy to
further subjugate a certain group within the polity by denying their
humanity or their capacity to reason. These takings involve more than the
confiscation of property; they also involve the deprivation of dignity. In her
book, We want what's ours: Learning from South Africa's land
restitution program, Atuahene has called these dignity takings. The
Popela people are a resource-poor, but culturally-rich African community
from South Africa's Limpopo region that the colonial and apartheid
regimes subjected to dignity takings. The post-apartheid state was
interested not only in providing compensation for property taken from the
Popela community and others, but also facilitating dignity restoration - a
comprehensive remedy that addresses the deprivations of property as well
as dignity. At the end of a protracted legal battle, the Constitutional Court
ruled that the Popela community was entitled to reparations requiring the
post-apartheid state to purchase the disputed land from its current owners
and return it to the community. However, the state went above and
beyond the Court-ordered remedy and tried to facilitate dignity restoration by expanding the number of community members entitled to land and increasing the amount of land transferred. The problem, however, is that over ten years since the much-celebrated court victory, the state has failed to deliver the more modest reparations mandated by the Constitutional Court as well as the more ambitious remedy designed to bring about dignity restoration. This article charts the consequences of the state's failed move from reparations to dignity restoration.
