Land Restitution in Port Elizabeth: Anatomy of a Relative Success

In the context of South African land restitution, the ‘collective project’ established under the Port Elizabeth Land and Community Restoration Association (PELCRA) represents a novel initiative based on a city-wide, purposive solidarity that cross-cuts socio-spatial, and to a lesser extent, socio-economic and ethno-racial divisions. Guided by highly competent, forward-looking and pragmatic leaders and service providers, PELCRA developed a model of land restitution which grouped all individual claimants in Port Elizabeth for the purpose of collectively developing well-located urban land. However, as elsewhere in South Africa, the project has been critically hamstrung in partnership with an uncommitted or indifferent state, upon which it is dependent for claims settlement and development. This has, in the end, seriously limited the developmental potential and transformative impact of restitution in Port Elizabeth. It has also affected the extent to which a lasting foundation for group identity, social activity and political mobilisation could be established on which to ground an ongoing collective project.