J. F. Whittal

• PhD
• Professor at University of Cape Town

This article investigates the concept of using cell-phone technology for obtaining information about unofficial (off-register) transfers in land as are commonly undertaken by the urban poor in South Africa. Since the introduction of social housing programmes in South Africa after the democratic elections in 1994, mass land distribution and housing...

This paper presents a new conceptual model for the land rights continuum. In developing the argument for the proposed model, the theoretical assumptions of the former model are challenged and an understanding of land rights and tenure elements is explored. The evolutionary approach is rejected in order to accommodate diversity and reflect the coexi...

This book on cadastral principles and practice is written as a comprehensive reference text for the practicing professional land surveyor, for lawyers, conveyancers, estate agents and others concerned with real property, and for the student of cadastral surveying, land tenure, and land administration in South Africa. The book is sectioned into fou...

In South Africa, land tenure security is a challenge for 60% or more of the population who hold interests in land outside of the formal system of registered title. There is a need for the cadastral and land administration systems to be reshaped, and for new land tenure forms to be developed to record all land rights and interests so as to improve l...

The article reports on the relocation of Bosheuvel, the most southerly of the original farms granted by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) along the Liesbeeck River in Cape Town between 1657 and 1660. These are represented on Pieter Potter’s general plans of 1658 and 1661. An original beacon that is still in use in the current cadastre is identifie...

Achieving best practices in land administration and management systems supporting land rights for all requires sustainable land administration and management, contributing to successful and significant land administration and management systems. There is an increasing need for legal framework reforms to support land administration and management sy...

Land administration is the concept that is commonly used for systems, processes and structures that humans deploy to manage the Earth’s resources locally, regionally, nationally and globally. Several definitions of land administration have evolved over the past decades. We interrogate the usefulness and appropriateness of these definitions in the l...

Undergraduate curriculum review at the University of Cape Town, South Africa

The 8Rs framework for responsible land management (RLM) is designed to evaluate individual land management projects or interventions. This paper describes such an evaluation of land management interventions in peri-urban areas of Ekiti State, Nigeria, with a focus on the structures, processes, and impact of these interventions. Primary data were co...

A nation's constitution should be overtly pro-poor in its objectives. These should include how constitutional principles support land administration systems and their legal frameworks, their reform. Constitutions have, been long neglected. There is a need within developing nations to embed pro-poor objectives into land administration systems and th...

As a boundary of the seashore, the high-water mark (HWM) is relevant to the public, the State, and other rights holders in the coastal zone. Unlike most fixed property boundaries that are surveyed and beaconed, the HWM is subject to dynamic natural coastal processes and moves over time. Its location is difficult to determine, and the precision of t...

Constitutions should provide a legal basis for addressing a country’s land administration system (LAS) and legal reform. Considering this vital role, a country’s constitution should be evaluated to ensure that it supports, in principle, LAS and law reforms that include pro-poor objectives. In recent years, several land administration assessment fra...

Constitutions should provide a legal basis for addressing a country’s land administration system (LAS) and legal reform. Considering this vital role, a country’s constitution should be evaluated to ensure that it supports, in principle, LAS and law reforms that include pro-poor objectives. In recent years, several land administration assessment fra...

For research involving customary land rights, ‘context is key’ because every context brings specific nuances for consideration. Failure to account for context runs the risk of irrelevance, unintended consequences and/or failure. We present a research method that allows context to speak: the progressive case study. The approach combines deductive ca...

In South Africa, land tenure security is a challenge for 60% or more of the population who hold interests in land outside of the formal system of registered title. There is a need for the cadastral and land administration systems to be reshaped, and for new land tenure forms to be developed to record all land rights and interests, to improve land t...

Human rights principles form the foundation for the move towards responsible land administration. They are embedded in such international treatises as the Sustainable Development Goals, New Urban Agenda, and Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure, among others. These treatises provide the backdrop to the development of land po...

A framework for guiding cadastral systems development towards success is used to assess the process of development in four different cases: Germany, the Netherlands, Mozambique, and South Africa. It is cautioned that development initiatives that do not take land rights-holders' context-specific needs into consideration may lack significance for the...

Our purpose is to present and test a typology of land reform theories as a means of understanding and interrogating the motives behind land reform and to better equip land administrators and policymakers to enact land reform programs that are appropriate for their contexts. Here, land reform is understood to include the related concepts of land red...

The benefits of forming a network of geomatics academics in Africa

Cadastral reconstruction of the original Constantia farm boundaries and beacons in the Cape, South Africa

Using a conceptual framework for guiding cadastral systems development in customary land rights contexts, the drafting and implementation of the 1995 Land Policy and 1997 Land Law in Mozambique from the early 1990s to the present is analysed for its successfulness, sustainability, and significance. The framework looks at the theory underlying devel...

• Provides an accurate methodology for determining the high water mark • Establishes a legally defensible high water mark for the study area • Evaluates and shows the impact the high water mark has on the existing property boundaries • Presents a clear and articulate argument for the implications of the legislation so heavily dependent on the high...

The article begins by defining land reform, specifically land tenure reform, and highlights why an understanding of this is important for geomaticians and other geo-spatial professionals. The importance of land tenure reform in customary areas of South Africa is also highlighted. Thereafter a framework for guiding cadastral systems development, as...

Land reform in South Africa has failed to meet its objectives. The intended beneficiaries often do not have their land reform needs met. Failures may be attributed to multiple sources. We propose a conceptual framework to assist governments conducting land reform projects. It draws on aspects of human rights, good governance, and pro-poor policy. E...

This article investigates the concept of using cell-phone technology for obtaining information about unofficial (off-register) transfers in land as are commonly undertaken by the urban poor in South Africa. Since the introduction of social housing programmes in South Africa after the democratic elections in 1994, mass land distribution and housing...

Land Law and Governance: African Perspectives on Land Tenure and Title explores different ways of conceptualising secure land holding in Africa. The book brings together voices from different contexts, offering contrasting perspectives and methodological approaches. Land Law and Governance: African Perspectives on Land Tenure and Title also juxtapo...

Developments towards three-dimensional cadastral systems are the subject of numerous international research projects. In South Africa, there may be a need for the option to convey three dimensional rights, restrictions and responsibilities (RRRs), particularly in urban areas and above or below ground complex situations where overlapping or interloc...

Professional Land Surveyors the world over are required not only to obtain knowledge and skills in technical aspects of land surveying, but also in development and property law. The complexities of a continuously changing policy, practice and legal landscape, and the challenges of combining the natural and social sciences in this teaching domain pr...

As part of a programme examining the effectiveness of land tenure forms − tenure administration system combinations, the paper examines how and why beneficiaries use land registration in Project 2, a state subsidised housing project in Mbekweni, South Africa. The ownership − registration combination can have a number of negative consequences when p...

Although there is a published lack of accepted frameworks and methodologies for the comparison and evaluation of national land administration systems, several frameworks for assessing the performance of LAS in terms of different aspects of these systems have been proposed. The bulk are biased towards analysis of technical, institutional, or cost/be...

The Social Tenure Domain Model currently being developed by the Global Land Tool Network emphasizes the need to find innovative land tools that can function in a pro-poor way. One such tool that has not previously been explored is the use of marital and cohabitation agreements to secure tenure. Private agreements can go beyond a legal arrangement b...

This paper tests a new conceptual model proposed for the land rights continuum in Whittal (2014). Fieldwork was conducted in Giyani in South Africa in 2013/14 in order to understand the land rights situation. The method of primary data collection, coding and processing was reported and critiqued in Whittal and Rikhotso (2014). Accessing valid data...

This study investigates land allocation processes, boundary demarcation, and associated land tenure security in tribal areas of South Africa. The research design is that of a descriptive multiple-case study to interrogate indigenous knowledge in this area. Four themes related to customary land allocation processes in South Africa have emerged from...

The article reports on the contribution of the four-year bachelor degree in Geomatics at the University of Cape Town in hydrographic surveying, property law and cadastral boundaries in the coastal zone. It highlights the role of the degree, which is focussed on land-based surveying, in preparing graduates for coastal and offshore work nationally an...

This thesis is the unpublished and uncorrected version of research submitted for examination as part of my BSc Geomatics qualification in 2014. The cadastre is founded on the notion that property is a two-dimensional entity. Traditionally this was the case when property consisted of rights in land that could be delineated using 2D boundaries. How...

In South Africa, the former apartheid land policy resulted in uneven distribution, development and management of land in South Africa, especially in rural areas. One of the main areas of redress for the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (the Department) is the restitution and redistribution of land. A huge challenge faced by the Depar...

Good governance is of paramount importance in the organizational systems and especially in governmental systems such as the land administration system. Principles of good governance are identified as a useful tool against which to measure good governance. These principles can also inform the development of land administration systems which improves...

After democracy in 1994, South Africa underwent a period of reform in order to address inequalities and effect broad social change. As part of this, the Municipal Demarcation Board began determining the locations of local government boundaries in 1998. The traditional communal lands and rural villages were often split by municipal boundaries which...

The development and implementation of an e-cadastre, called Project Vulindlela, is underway in South Africa yet there is little literature/research to guide e-cadastral development and implementation globally. Also, the meanings of the terms ‘e-cadastre’ and ‘e-cadastral system’ are unclear. This paper seeks to address these limitations. We begin w...

Since time immemorial the seashore has played an evolving but important role in society. In South Africa, the interface between rights in the land and the seashore has been the high water mark (HWM). The Seashore Act No 21 of 1935 (SSA) and the Maritime Zones Act No 15 of 1994 (MZA) governed the extent of these rights. Environmental concern, increa...

Good governance in land administration is increasingly recognized as paramount in reducing poverty. Efficient delivery of land in peri-urban areas is crucial for housing, industrial and infrastructure development, and the smooth operation of land and credit markets. Consequently, land tenure institutions need to be administered in an open and trans...

Coastal land is highly sought after which is reflected by its high value. With the changes in legislation governing the management and use of coastal land and sea (Integrated Coastal Management Act No 24 of 2008 (ICMA)), and with the expected rise in sea level and storm surges, the rights, restrictions and responsibilities (the three R's) of all in...

In 2000, the City of Cape Town generated market values of approximately 550 000 residential properties in Metropolitan Cape Town, employing Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA). These valuations form the basis for local government property taxation. A high level of risk and, hence, uncertainty, dominated the landscape of complex change, such as...

Given the history of South Africa, which has resulted in a significantly skewed pattern of access to scarce resources in favor of a wealthy racial minority, the issue of access to land and shelter is a central and emotive one. It is also a potential arena of conflict and social and political divisions. It is therefore important to understand, monit...

Location is vital in explaining the value of a property in a complex property market like Cape Town, where sale prices vary over short distances due to historic and current social, political and economic dynamics. Estimation of market values that closely resemble the actual sale prices can be achieved if the modelling of location is improved. This...

Informal settlements and housing development in Wallacedene, Cape Town, South Africa

Paper removed at authors' request. For additional information, please contact Mike Berry at berry@geomatics.ucalgary.edu.

The new South African Datum, based upon the WGS84 datum, will soon become available and, in due course, will become the legal and official datum for cadstral and other surveys. The changeover to the new datum should not cause any serious difficulties for surveyors; in fact it will make many surveys, especially those using GPS, much simpler. However...

SUMMARY The City of Cape Town has recently implemented Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) for the purposes of generating market values of approximately 550 000 residential properties in the Metropolitan City of Cape Town. Market valuations are used as the basis for property taxation at local government level, and are critical in the provision...

Spatial heterogeneity is a well-known problem in Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) modelling. Under such conditions, the accuracy of the generated models is reduced and very often incorrect property estimates result. Many techniques have been proposed to address this concern, one of which is Neural Networks (NN).The City Valuation Office (CVO...

Designing effective cadastral systems that promote sustainable development is a challenge faced by Geomatics practitioners, particularly in developing countries. Prior to the implementation of a cadastral system reform project, the current cadastral system and its effectiveness should be analysed. Cadastral systems are normally managed by bureaucra...