Year of Grant: 2015

Location: South Africa

Free Market Foundation (FMF) is an independent public benefit organization founded in 1975 in South Africa. It is focused on promoting and fostering an open society based on classical liberal principles. Widely regarded as South Africa’s leading property rights champion, FMF was instrumental in the post-apartheid negotiations and directly influenced the Constitutional Commission to include the property rights clause in the Constitution, a critical cornerstone of economic freedom and individual liberty.

Secure tenure in the form of title to a house provides a critical asset for the poor. Homeowners have a different set of incentives than those who rent housing. Among these are incentives to invest in the home and use it profitably, knowing that they, as homeowners, will be in a better position to realize those benefits.

This project in the pilot site of Ngwathe Municipality aims to transfer the ownership of 100 municipally-owned rental houses to their rightful new owners. This is based off the Updated Land Tenure Rights Act of 1991 that replaced the Natives Land  Act ,1913 , which previously decreed that only certain areas of the country could be owned by natives.

FMF will invite registered residents to submit applications for conversion of their properties to full freehold title. A radio campaign will be used to serve a dual purpose of inviting people to apply for their title and informing them of the importance of property rights. FMF will complete each application for conversion and submit them to the Deeds Office for registration of the freehold title deed.

Unique and truly historical, FMF’s project has the potential to be the first ever large-scale substantive project to undo the land disempowerment of apartheid that is still endured by millions of South Africans, and in turn, unlock the economic potential of a large number of householders, liberating them to spur large-scale economic growth.