124GATEKEEPERSERIES MYSTERIES AND MYTHS: DE SOTO, PROPERTY AND POVERTY IN SOUTH AFRICA Rosalie Kingwill,Ben Cousins, TessaCousins,DonnaHornby, LaurenRoyston and WarrenSmit 2006 THE GATEKEEPER SERIES of the Natural Resources Group at IIED is produced by the Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods Programme. The Series aims to highlight key topics in the field of sustainable natural resource management. Each paper reviews a selected issue of contemporary importance and draws preliminary conclusions for development that are particularly relevant for policymakers, researchers and planners. References are provided to important sources and background material. The Series is published three times a year and is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Rockefeller Foundation. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily represent those of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Rockefeller Foundation, or any of their partners. This paper is based on Policy Brief 18 (October 2005), originally published by the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape. We acknowledge their kind permission to use it as the basis of this Gatekeeper Paper. ROSALIE KINGWILL is an independent consultant at Mbumba Development Services (
[email protected]), BEN COUSINS is Director of the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the Western Cape (
[email protected]); TESSA COUSINS is Director of the Association for Water and Rural Development (
[email protected]); DONNA HORNBY works for the Association for Rural Advance- ment (
[email protected]); LAUREN ROYSTON is a principal at Development Works (
[email protected]); WARREN SMIT works for the Development Action Group (
[email protected]).