Legislating 'Tradition' in South Africa

This article analyses the debate and passage of the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act of 2003. Through an examination of the passage of this Act, I demonstrate how traditional leaders, the ANC-led government, and civil society organisations each imagine the role of ‘tradition’ and chieftaincy in South Africa and how these different notions were accommodated in the final legislation. After the recognition of traditional leaders in the interim (1993) and final constitutions (1996), there has been a great deal of confusion concerning the responsibilities of traditional leaders in South Africa's new democratic dispensation. This Act sought to clarify this issue. In addition, the Act was meant to ‘transform’ chieftaincy so that it was consistent with those newly established democratic values and institutions. Despite these goals, I argue that the Act fails to clarify the precise nature of ‘traditional’ authority. Instead, the Act formally links chieftaincy with local government institutions and its developmental goals. By doing so, the ‘transformation’ envisioned in the Act is limited and it has simply codified those informal links