South Africa's Land Reform Policy

Politicians and agricultural experts have diverse opinions on how South Africa's land reform policy should be amended to adhere to calls for more black ownership
They took part in a panel discussion at the Aardklop arts festival in Potchefstroom in the North West.
Professor Theo Venter of the University of the Orange Free State stated that if government gives people land without providing them with resources or access to resources then such land redistribution will fail.
Some farmers stated they bought their own land and did so under the current constitutional dispensation in South Africa’s post-apartheid.
Bantu Holomisa was among the delegates. He urged government to refrain from “striking agreements” which do not benefit local farmers. He cited the dumping of European chicken on the South African market as one case in point.
Holomisa urged that improving the lives of rural inhabitants should form part of the revised land reform policy in South Africa.
Land issue in South Africa is very implicated, complicated and much emotional.
There are white farmers who have not inherited the so called “stolen land” under apartheid or colonial rule. They bought land legally and bona fide under the current South African political order.
There are also black and other persons of colour who did so as well.
The other challenge with land redistribution is that some land that was exchanged is currently not utilised, so it remains a dead capital as in the case of Zimbabwe.
It does not make any sense, in fact it is economically unwise, to redistribute land for the sake of political reasons and not economic reasons. It is not cool to “take” land from one owner who utilises it and contribute to the economic wellbeing and give such land to a new owner who will not utilise it at all.
More money and skills training are needed to ensure success in land reform and redistribution.
Dispossession of land is a very emotional historical issue:

The Dutch dispossessed some Xhosa and Khoi of land
The British Imperialists dispossessed the Dutch (Afrikaners), Zulu, and other African tribes of their land
The 19^th and early 20^th century missionaries and colonialists dispossessed tribal kings and chiefs of land.
The post 1948 Nationalist Party dispossessed most blacks, Indian and Coloureds of their land through Land Act, Native Affairs Act, etc. People were forcefully removed from their homes into other places by force.
In post 1994 democratic dispensation, there are so many rising voices that minority white Afrikaner farmers must be dispossessed of their farms.
This is like a funny circus train of all kinds of political animals, which keeps on evolving and revolving around people’s lives.
In all these cases, victims are common people, poor people and people less privileged in society. It is a terrible war against a human being)

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The views expressed in the article are the author’s and are not necessarily shared by the members of the Foundation.

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