The Richtersveld Community and Others v Alexkor Limited and Another

The Richtersveld Community, an indigenous Khoi-Nama community residing in the Richtersveld area of the Northern Cape, claimed restitution of a strip of coastal land (approximately 85 000 hectares) under s 2(1) of the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994. The land had been traditionally occupied and used by the community under indigenous customary law long before British annexation in 1847. In the 1920s, diamonds were discovered on the land, and the State treated it as Crown land, ultimately granting ownership and mineral rights to Alexkor Ltd in 1994. The Land Claims Court dismissed the community’s claim, holding that any indigenous rights were extinguished upon annexation and that later dispossession was not racially discriminatory. The community appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

The appeal was upheld. The Richtersveld Community was found to be entitled to restitution of the subject land under s 2(1) of the Restitution of Land Rights Act. The dismissal of the claim by the Land Claims Court was set aside.

This case is a landmark in South African land restitution and customary law jurisprudence. It recognised, for the first time at appellate level, that indigenous customary law land rights akin to ownership survived colonial annexation and constitute enforceable 'rights in land' under the Restitution of Land Rights Act. The judgment affirmed the legal status and content of indigenous land tenure systems and laid the groundwork for the Constitutional Court’s later confirmation and development of these principles.