Archbishop Desmond Tutu referred to South Africa as ‘The Rainbow Nation,’ due to the rich multicultural diversity of the population. A country with stunning natural beauty, exotic wildlife, abundant natural resources, temperate climes and a stable economy, South Africa has become a sought-after address, particularly in cosmopolitan coastal cities such as Durban and Capetown.

Yet in the country where Ubuntu philosophy was born – belief in the universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity – many feel the tension of vast inequity between wealthy foreign landowners and comparatively poor native South Africans. And one contentious issue is that the former are unwilling to share their private beaches – an increasingly large percentage of South Africa’s coastline – with the latter. Both groups flock to the coast to bask in the equatorial sun, but due to prohibitively expensive coastal real estate prices, only foreigners and the very wealthy can now afford to buy a seaside plot to call their own – which is precisely what they’re doing, and in mass quantities. Beaches with public access are becoming increasingly rare as ocean-front estates restrict entry.

More than a decade after the end of apartheid, land ownership is still largely unattainable for many South Africans. A favorable exchange rate makes it all but impossible for locals to compete with foreign buyers on the real estate market, a fact that South Africa’s government says it hopes to correct. One solution under discussion is to convert foreign-owned deeds to 99-year leases; however, opponents fear this will decrease foreign direct investment in South Africa. All parties agree that a forced land grab from foreign owners, such as the one that occurred in Zimbabwe in 2000 – effectively collapsing the Zimbabwean economy – is not a viable option.

What seems to be the most promising development is the passing of the Integrated Coastal Management Bill in December, which operates on the principal that a nation’s beaches and territorial seas are public property. The Bill requires new developments to guarantee public beach access and that existing properties open their shore to the public. It also provides measures to allow only ecologically sustainable levels of development and enforce tighter controls on pollution.

And so it appears there is hope that South Africans may again enjoy their pristine beaches wherever they may please. South Africa’s Ubuntu philosophy of sharing as a means to build connections would seem to be at work here, albeit somewhat forced.