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How geomatics, legal pluralism, and history shape SA’s land justice future
06 June 2025 | Story Myolisi Gophe. Photo Lerato Maduna. Read time 8 min.
Professor Jenniffer Whittal’s personal and professional journey mirrors the evolving landscape of land justice in South Africa. Having first walked the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) upper campus as an undergraduate 35 years ago, the university has been a constant thread through her life – as a student, researcher, teacher, and mother.
But her inaugural lecture on 3 May was not just an academic exercise but a deeply personal reflection on how land boundaries – both literal and conceptual – shape identity, power, and opportunity. Titled “Beyond Boundaries” and attracting a large audience of students, academics and members of the public, the lecture wove together centuries of colonial legacy, cutting-edge technology, and African legal pluralism to illuminate the complex realities that continue to define land administration and social equity today.
“We must ask ourselves whether our systems serve the people they are meant to serve,” she said.
Using a rich tapestry of historical documents, geographic information systems (GIS), and fieldwork, Professor Whittal traced the origins of Cape Town’s southern suburbs back to the 17th century. Remarkably, some of the original land boundaries, beacons, and survey marks laid down by early Dutch settlers like Pieter Potter remain intact today. One such beacon, known as “Beacon F”, rests at the corner of a wall and a tree, silently marking a boundary set over 350 years ago.
“In South Africa, boundaries are not just physical features. They have shaped our physical and social landscapes.”
These ancient markers and the meticulous hand-drawn maps they inspired reveal much more than property lines. They tell a story of exclusion, colonial conquest, and the erasure of indigenous land rights. “In South Africa, boundaries are not just physical features. They have shaped our physical and social landscapes,” Whittal noted.
In 1659 for instance, settlers planted a hedge of wild almond trees as a formal racial boundary to separate themselves from indigenous Khoikhoi communities, denying them access to vital resources. Remnants of this hedge still exist, embedding colonial power into the physical landscape. “Some of the original boundaries and beacons still exist. But tracing them requires meticulous detective work through historical deeds, maps, and satellite data.”
Through geomatics – the science of measuring and managing spatial data – Whittal and her students have reconstructed the geographic DNA of Cape Town’s colonial past. They used advanced techniques to georeference centuries-old maps, overlaying them with modern satellite imagery to reveal the persistence of early colonial farm boundaries in today’s urban layouts. “Geomatics can build a more just society. By acknowledging history and using technology ethically, we can support equitable land reform and spatial justice,” she revealed.
One remarkable discovery was the Hen and Chickens rock formation near Wynberg Hill, believed to be South Africa’s oldest surviving pedestrian beacon, used by early surveyors as a vantage point to lay out farms. Despite efforts to recognise and protect this heritage site, a recent provincial heritage application was inexplicably denied, prompting digital preservation initiatives through 3D laser scanning.
The lecture also examined contemporary challenges, such as defining the high-water mark – the legally contested boundary between public coastal land and private beachfront property. Here, geomatics plays a vital role in settling disputes and ensuring equitable access to natural resources amid environmental change.
Legal pluralism a framework for justice
Central to Whittal’s lecture was the concept of legal pluralism – the coexistence of multiple legal systems within one country. South Africa’s Constitution uniquely recognises African customary law as equal in status to the state legal system. This legal pluralism challenges the dominance of Western legal frameworks that traditionally view land rights through an individualistic, static lens.
By contrast, many African communities understand land ownership as a living, intergenerational stewardship, embedded in family lineages and collective responsibility. These customary systems often defy neat categorisation within state legal frameworks, which tend to emphasise discrete legal ownership rather than fluid, social relationships with the land.
“Alternative normative legal systems, such as customary, indigenous, informal, and religious law, continue to thrive across the continent. They are resilient, adaptive, and deeply embedded in social practices and institutions.”
The lecture illustrated a continuum of legal pluralism, from weak forms where alternative legal systems are only recognised when validated by the state, to deep forms, where such systems exist and operate independently. “In truly plural legal contexts, it is a fallacy to claim these systems exist in parallel. Their relationships are complex, overlapping, and often nested,” she noted. Understanding how people choose between legal systems in different scenarios is key to designing more inclusive and functional land administration interventions.
“We are called to embrace diversity rather than constrain it. Legal pluralism offers a pathway to reimagine and reshape land governance systems.”
This perspective is not only academically rigorous but also politically urgent, especially in efforts to decolonise land administration and broaden access to land rights for the poor and marginalised. “There is great potential in the margins. We are called to embrace diversity rather than constrain it. Legal pluralism offers a pathway to reimagine and reshape land governance systems.”
This insight cautions against imposing rigid, Western-centric reforms on land administration. Instead, it calls for interdisciplinary collaboration between geomatics experts, social scientists, and legal anthropologists to develop solutions that respect local realities and empower marginalised communities.
“We must move beyond the assumption that the state is the sole creator and enforcer of law. In contexts of limited state capacity, or even state failure, customary systems often provide more effective governance,” Whittal said.
Investing in Africa’s future
Whittal’s career exemplifies commitment to building capacity and leadership in surveying and geomatics across Africa. She was the youngest female president of a local surveying institute in the 1990s and currently chairs the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) Africa Regional Capacity Development Network.
She mentors young African surveyors through annual programmes and serves on the FIG Foundation Board, helping secure scholarships and opportunities for emerging professionals from developing countries. Looking forward, she will chair the technical committee for the FIG Congress 2026, to be held in Cape Town – a major global event uniting experts across surveying, construction economics, and geoinformation sciences.
Throughout her lecture, Whittal shared candid reflections on the challenges shaping her academic journey, including balancing early motherhood, heavy teaching loads, a cancer diagnosis, and a divorce. These personal experiences deepened her empathy and commitment to research that foregrounds people’s lived realities.
“As we navigate the future, we must not only chart new boundaries. We must understand the maps we’ve inherited and commit to justice that transcends lines on a page.”
Her co-authorship of a new, comprehensive textbook on South African cadastral systems, an overdue update since the last one written in 1973, is an essential resource for students, practitioners, and policy makers.
The lecture concluded with a reminder that geomatics is not neutral. While it provides the tools to measure and map land, it must be wielded with intention to empower informal settlements, support equitable urban planning, and challenge exclusionary systems rooted in colonial history.
“As we navigate the future, we must not only chart new boundaries. We must understand the maps we’ve inherited and commit to justice that transcends lines on a page. Land tenure is central to the Sustainable Development Goals. Understanding how laws and boundaries affect people’s lives is key to ensuring the reforms we make truly serve the people they’re meant to benefit.”
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The UCT Inaugural Lecture Series
Inaugural lectures are a central part of university academic life. These events are held to commemorate the inaugural lecturer’s appointment to full professorship. They provide a platform for the academic to present the body of research that they have been focusing on during their career, while also giving UCT the opportunity to showcase its academics and share its research with members of the wider university community and the general public in an accessible way.
In April 2023, Interim Vice-Chancellor Emeritus Professor Daya Reddy announced that the Vice-Chancellor’s Inaugural Lecture Series would be held in abeyance in the coming months, to accommodate a resumption of inaugural lectures under a reconfigured UCT Inaugural Lecture Series – where the UCT extended executive has resolved that for the foreseeable future, all inaugural lectures will be resumed at faculty level.
Recent executive communications
2025
2024
Professor Susan Cleary delivered her inaugural lecture on 14 March.
14 Mar 2024 - 5 min read
2023
Prof Lydia Cairncross’s inaugural lecture provided a snapshot of the career path of a surgeon and community activist whose commitment to social justice means her work doesn’t end in the operating theatre.
02 Nov 2023 - 8 min read
2022
Professor Linda Ronnie is in UCT’s Faculty of Commerce.
28 Sep 2022 - 6 min read
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2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016 and 2015
No inaugural lectures took place during 2015 and 2016.