Abstract: This article attempts to highlight the incongruity in the co-existence of social differentiation among the people and communal forms of land holding. It traces the manner in which the pre-existing type of tenure was undermined and distorted by colonial penetration in the remote north western part of South Africa called Richtersveld, compares the experience of these reserves with that of the larger 'bantustans', demonstrates the failure of state interventionist attempts at individualisation and questions the viability of the contemporary distorted communal system. Finally, it examines the disintegration of local grazing regulation and its long term environmental and social impact.