Property As a Human Right

In this paper, Albie Sachs discusses the phenomenon of landlessness and homeless families in the South African context. The author asserts that there is a group in South Africa that favours private initiative and more often it finds itself in a constant battle with attempts by the State to regulate their activities. This group is the shack dwellers, the so-called squatters on the outskirts of the cities. Mr Sachs postulates that the issue of landlessness and homeless can be addressed by reconciling two competing considerations. The first one is about dealing with with massive landlessness and rightlessness produced by Apartheid and secondly, to not allow people to be arbitrarily deprived on an interest lawfully achieved. The author then ventures to discuss these two considerations in detail and sets out how these considerations can be reconciled with a view to address the issue of prevalent landlessness and homelessness in South Africa.