1 Published in 2003 in Anthropology Southern Africa, 26(1/2): 63-71. This version was the last draft before publication LAND CLAIMS AND CORPORATE IMITATION: BROKERING DEVELOPMENT IN MAPUTALAND, KWAZULU-NATAL Ilana van Wyk University of Pretoria e-mail: ilana@postino.up.ac.za Introduction Various writers have commented on the post-apartheid resilience of discourses on ‘tradition’ and ethnic identity in South Africa, previously thought to be anomalies of apartheid, that were bound to disappear under a democratic dispensation (J. & J. L. Comaroff 1997: xiv; Oomen 2000: 71). Researchers showed that ‘traditional’ institutions like chiefs 1 did not merely survive the democratisation of South African politics but were actually growing in popularity (Fokwang 2003; Ntsebeza 2001:323). In many areas in South Africa Traditional Authorities remained in charge of communal land. They continued to play a role in land allocation, dispute settlement and continued to carry out administrative tasks as they had for the past decades. In this regard, the Black Administration Act (38 of 1927) still regulated the criminal and civil jurisdiction of traditional leaders to adjudicate disputes and offences in traditional courts. Sections 211 (1) and 211 (3) of South Africa’s new Constitution recognises the institution of traditional leadership in terms of customary law (Vorster 2001: 119, 121). Furthermore, the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers Act (20 of 1998) ensured that each of South Africa’s eight hundred chiefs still received an annual salary from the state. In general, the South African government showed great reluctance to dismantle the Traditional Authority system or to refrain from engaging in the politics of ethnic identity 2 . Indeed, ethnicity and race replaced class as keywords of the new official political discourse (J. & J.L. Comaroff 2000: 301-306; Oomen 2000). 1 A chief designates a political leader who draws his authority and power from the discourse of local tradition (Lindstrom & White 2002: 8). 2 For instance, in the run-up to the 1999 elections, Nelson Mandela met with the country’s traditional leaders and increased their salaries (Hlongwa 1999:4).