Culture Vs The Constitution: The Suffering Of Zulu Widows

In theory, South Africa has strong laws to protect the property ownership and inheritance rights of all women. However, a 2018 study conducted by Bongi Owusu for her master’s dissertation in social science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal found that these laws are often not implemented in rural Zulu-speaking communities. She explains how this prejudices widows in particular.

- Lloyd Phillps

When a Zulu woman’s husband dies, she is relegated to sitting quietly on a mattress in the corner of a room while other people are allowed to help themselves to her late spouse’s land and other possessions. Moreover, for cultural reasons, she is not permitted to work the land for six months after her spouse’s death. This means that if her husband dies during the annual planting season, her food security and that of her direct dependants is threatened.

I discovered these facts as part of my research into the gendered politics in the inheritance of land and other property by Zulu widows in KwaZulu-Natal. My research critically analysed the constitutional conflicts involved in land inheritance for women in general, and zoomed into numerous discriminations and abuse that widowed women are exposed to.

My study also looked at how the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (agriculture department) partners with other stakeholders in ensuring that land reform programmes are gendered and equitably shared between both men and women as enshrined in the South African Constitution of 1996, the Freedom Charter of 1955, and national land reform policies.

Even though the Bill of Rights chapter of South Africa’s Constitution clearly states that no person may be discriminated against for reasons of race, gender or religion, my research found that, in many rural areas, local customary laws take precedence over the Constitution. It is as if the traditional leaders are unaware the Constitution exists. While some do know of anti-discrimination laws, for political reasons they choose not to implement them amongst their subjects.

I learnt that some traditional leaders choose to ignore the Constitution because they say they were not consulted when it was drafted and that their leadership was therefore ignored and undermined.

LAWS THAT DEVALUE WOMEN