The Khaya Lam Project, started by the Free Market Foundation (FMF) and backed by billionaires Christo Wiese and Johann Rupert, has given 24 500 title deeds to South Africans.
This project aims to promote property ownership by helping and funding South Africans through the process of getting title deeds.
Wiese explained to the 9th BizNews Conference that the project all began with reading The Mystery of Capital by Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto. The book centres on the idea that poor people around the world have trillions of dollars’ worth of real estate that cannot be used to build wealth or secure credit.
“The only wisdom that you have when you get to my age is that there really isn’t a lot of wisdom required to solve problems and things are actually quite simple,” Wiese said.
De Soto’s solution is quite simple – give people ownership of the land they live on, within reasonable limits, by making the regulatory process easier and cheaper.
“I had dinner with De Soto and Niall Ferguson, and I asked how much success they have had with the idea. If I remember correctly, only two governments adopted his plan. I offered to buy them tickets to South Africa and talk to our government about it. They said, ‘No, don’t worry, we have already been there twice to talk about it,” he said.
The FMF’s data shows that there are between 7 and 11 million households in South Africa where people own the structure they live in, but not the land.
“In these communities, there is a great understanding of property rights. You cannot just take someone else’s land. But, they don’t legally have the title deed,” Wiese explained.
Khaya Lam
With an obvious solution and little help from the government, Wiese and a handful of other businessmen decided to take matters into their own hands.
The FMF understood the importance of De Soto’s ideas and set up the Khaya Lam Project, where people can contribute money to fund the title deed process for South Africans. Wiese explained that 15 years ago, when the project first started, it cost R2,000 to have a title deed registered with the state.
“Strangely enough, the first place they got permission was Parys, which had Ace Magashule as the premier of the Free State. They gave permission to take this project further. We organised a few hundred title deeds and were there to hand them over to people. There were really moving scenes,” he added.
The Khaya Lam Project has handed out 24,500 title deeds so far, at a run rate of around 4,000 per year.
The project focuses on helping individuals who live on municipal property, often for extended periods, convert from tenants to homeowners. This means the project works with local authorities and legal experts to navigate this process, which requires extensive effort to maintain compliance.
The project must identify the property owner, ensure compliance, and then engage legal experts to process the necessary documentation.
By providing people with formal property titles, the Khaya Lam initiative empowers them economically by enabling access to credit and increasing their property value.
The FMF also argues that the project fosters a sense of community and stability – turning dead capital into dynamic capital.
