Communicative mapping as a means for promoting legal land tenure: The case study of the Goedverwacht Moravian Mission Village, in the Western Cape, South Africa

Abstract

The newly enacted Western Cape Land Use Planning Act (Act No. 3 of 2014) repeals the Rural Areas Act (Act No. 9 of 1987) and requires that all land within a municipality be incorporated into an existing municipal zoning scheme. The prospect of this has created uncertainty among the residents of the Goedverwacht Moravian Mission Village (Goedverwacht) in the Western Cape regarding the future of its communal church lifestyle. In anticipation of change, students from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) have embarked on a community mapping service-learning project at Goedverwacht to explore the usefulness of communicative mapping as a means for promoting legal land tenure. This article argues that communicative mapping is a valuable way of creating spatial awareness in a communal settlement. The findings show that creating an interim cadastral map using general boundaries at an accuracy fit for purpose is a feasible way of creating spatial awareness and provides a means for promoting legal land tenure.

Keywords: Communicative mapping, communal tenure, land tenure, land reform, mission towns