Recent Changes in Women’s Land Rights and Contested Customary Law in South Africa ANINKA CLAASSENS This paper discusses the phenomenon of single women claiming, and acquiring, residential sites in the former homelands since the end of apartheid in 1994, against the backdrop of steadily declining marriage rates. It argues that the transition to democracy changed the balance of power within which ‘living customary law’ is negotiated at the local level, and emboldened women.The changes are put at risk by controversial traditional leadership laws enacted since 2003.These restore the power of definition to chiefs, and reassert constructs of customary law that obscure the dynamics of the changes under way. I suggest that the ‘changes’ may, in part, reflect the re-emergence of pre-existing repertoires that were sup- pressed by official customary law.The paper contrasts the Constitutional Court’s inclusive approach to ‘living customary law’ and the legislative process, with the autocratic approach of the new laws, one of which has already been struck down by the Court. Keywords: land rights, customary law, women, marriage, democracy INTRODUCTION This paper describes significant changes with regard to single women acquiring residential sites in former homeland areas since South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994.This is contrary to official customary law inherited from apartheid, in terms of which only married men with families are eligible for the allocation of residential sites. The scale and pace of single women obtaining residential sites varies between areas and from province to province, but is taking place throughout the ‘communal areas’ of South Africa. It was not precipitated by a particular new law or land reform measure. Instead, it appears to be the outcome of spontaneous local negotiations between women and land authorities, which began around 1994 and have since gathered momentum. These changes are taking place against the backdrop of severe poverty, massive unem- ployment and increasing reliance on social grants in the former homelands. The fact that only single women (including widowed and divorced women), as opposed to married women, are acquiring sites independently indicates the need to include marriage alongside land rights in our field of investigation. The changes have occurred in the context of a steady decline in marriage rates since 1960 (Hunter 2005, 148–9), but do not appear to have been precipitated by a particular dip in marriage rates. Instead, I argue that the symbolic victory of equality and democracy during the 1994 transition changed the balance of power Aninka Claassens, Senior Researcher and Project Leader, Rural Women’s Action Research Project, Law, Race and Gender Unit, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa. E-mail: aninka.claassens@uct.ac.za I am grateful to Bridget O’Laughlin and Pauline Peters for their detailed comments on earlier drafts, and to several anonymous referees. bs_bs_banner Journal of Agrarian Change, Vol. 13 No. 1, January 2013, pp. 71–92. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd