ABSTRACT
This chapter reveals how memory appropriation plays a critical role in recent developments across the length and breadth of South Africa, and particularly calls for a revisiting of issues once deemed settled in the political landscape. It equally provides a solid basis for the resolution of socioeconomic contradictions of a historical nature, and does so in a more sustainable and democratic manner. Evidence of living memory can be seen from agitations for land expropriation without compensation and slogans such as "white monopoly capital" and "radical economic transformation". The memory of apartheid-era policies was activated by the reality on the ground, which accounted for recent attempts at "land grabs" in this country. During the apartheid era, lack of access to resources, in an attempt to secure a meaningful livelihood, meant that many black families could neither afford decent housing nor look to the state to provide housing.
