The debate on land reform in South Africa does seem like a case of the same proposals coming around again and again. Although South Africa has a clear constitutional and legal framework for land reform, a lack of effective implementation of available measures and instruments coupled with low levels of budgetary allocations for land reform, corruption, lack of political will and lack of capacity, as cited in the 2017 High-level panel report on key legislation , has frustrated progress with the various land reform programmes. 

The Minister of Land Reform and Rural Development, Minister Nyhontso recently engaged with the portfolio committee on rural development and land reform in Parliament.  He said, amongst other things, that the land redistribution programme is moving at a slow pace and that the slow pace of land reform in South Africa has become a source of mounting frustration for millions. He indicated that the Equitable Access to Land Bill will address this sluggish progress. This Bill is still in the drafting stage.  No draft is available as yet, but from what the Minister and officials of his department have indicated in their presentation to the portfolio committee, the Bill may contain clauses requiring landowners to register their race, a register of agricultural land and land ceilings.

Proposals for land ceilings, a land register, right of first refusal and restrictions on foreign ownership were contained in the 2011 Green Paper on Land Reform.  There was a three-year consultation process on these Green Paper proposals and most of these proposals were not proceeded with at that stage.

As far as expropriation is concerned, the first draft of a new Expropriation Bill was done in 2008.  The debate regarding expropriation without compensation started in earnest in December 2017 at the ANC policy conference.

The land debate went very quiet after the failed attempt to amend section 25 of the Constitution.  It has recently picked up again with the signing of the Expropriation Act and the stated intention to pass the Equitable Access to Land Bill.

Progress with land reform and the real reason for the frustrations around land reform

The perceived slow pace of land reform to date and the loss in production on land reform farms, as well as the failure to empower people economically through land reform is a failure of implementation rather than a failure of the legal framework. Generally speaking, land reform as envisaged by the Constitution and embodied in the 1996 White Paper on Land Reform and various pieces of legislation sets a workable framework for land reform.  Lack of adequate budgeting, policy uncertainty, the lack of comprehensive, integrated support systems, poor communication with stakeholders and corruption are the real reasons why land reform has not happened at a faster pace and in a more sustainable manner. The approach of government over many years has not been a focus on fixing these implementation problems, but rather coming up with new laws, policies and programmes. 

The perception amongst the majority of the population is that land reform progress is slow.  The Human Sciences Research Council found in 2018, that: “In late 2017, only 21of adults were satisfied with progress in relation to government’s land reform programme, with satisfaction levels fluctuating between 21 and 32% over the fifteen-year interval. Current levels of satisfaction with the implementation of land reform are at an all-time low, which may also partly explain why this policy issue has once again come firmly under the spotlight.

 

But has there really been so little progress made with land reform?  My colleague Wandile Sihlobo and Prof Johann Kirsten has been doing a lot of research on land reform.  They state in a recent article   that: “Based on our years of work on land reform and agricultural policy it’s unclear to us why such a bill (referring to the Equitable Access to Land Bill) is necessary. We believe there are two reasons a new law would be superfluous. Firstly, South Africa already has roughly 16 laws that address the issue of land. Secondly, policymakers tend to ignore the facts on land reform progress. It is hard not to view the obsession with new legislation by every new minister as a distraction from the core issues. The minister should be focusing on distributing the land the government has acquired to black farmers and give them title deeds.” It is however true that South Africa does not have a redistribution law. That is why the High-level panel report recommended that a Redistribution Bill be adopted. The draft bill included in the Panel report however dealt with subjects such as principles for redistribution, target groups, a land demand register, prioritisation and beneficiary selection.  It did not mention land ceilings or a register of agricultural land holdings, which now seem to be part of the thinking regarding the Equitable Access to Land Bill.