Urban land restitution in post-apartheid South Africa: Questions from the Johannesburg inner-city

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In an attempt to address the racial injustices of the past,a Land Claims Court has been established in post-apartheid South Africa. This paper draws attention to the folly of compensating property owners tenants. It uses a case study of the Johannesburg inner-city suburb of Pageview to highlight the fact that Indian landlords, although forcibly segregated and themselves racially oppressed, profited from rack-renting to poor African, coloured and Indian people. Working class Indian organizations alleged that to protect this position of relative privilege, landlords opposed the provision of segregated public housing in the 1940s and 1950s. As the only individuals with legal title to Pageview property landlords now stand to gain from the land claims court while tenants are excluded from any restitution.