ABSTRACT
Introduction This book is built on the premise that land reform remains a powerful political imperative in societies where there have been extreme inequalities in land and resource ownership, access and use. Reforming land and the broader agrarian structure have been seen as key ingredients of policies of social and economic transformation and, depending on the model, of environmental transformation as well. Countries and states that have followed a prescribed reform trajectory can always count on support from donor and bilateral agencies like the World Bank, UNDP and FAO. South Africa fits this profile. Under the political leadership of the African National Congress (ANC), reforms have been initiated to transform society and make it more equitable. Political choices, which include the construction of a legal and knowledge infrastructure, have been made that will facilitate this transformation. The infamous Land Act of 1913 has been repealed. Communities, groups and individuals who were forcefully removed from their ancestral land have been able to reclaim it. Land bought on a willing-seller willing-buyer basis has been redistributed. More recently, post-settlement support has been provided to land reform beneficiaries. This has meant, in effect, that beneficiaries have been forced to accept the advice and direction of a variety of experts: policymakers, extension agents and consultants. It is assumed that the recipients of post-settlement support are a relatively homogenous group, even though they comprise rural dwellers, township dwellers, farm workers, labour migrants, ‘subsistence’ farmers, and men and women. Expectations have run high, but have frequently been disappointed. This book brings together a set of insightful analyses based on critical examination of the South African experience of the last 15 years with regard to the complexities that have emerged in relation to the implementation of land and related reforms. Land reform in South Africa has been hotly debated since its inception, not only in the media and in policy and academic circles but also in rural areas and the townships. In 2000, Ben Cousins edited a set of conference papers under the title At the Crossroads: Land and Agrarian Reform in South Africa into the 21st Century (Cousins 2000). At the time, land reform in South Africa was a relatively recent phenomenon. There was still no significant South African-based
research on the dynamics of land reform that could guide policy options. A decade later, land reform is still effectively at the crossroads. However, the issues are much clearer and more politically framed today than they were ten years ago. The debates about how to proceed with the process of land reform in the country can now draw on a number of significant studies. The chapters in this book represent a significant contribution to these debates. Land reform in South Africa has reached a critical point with regards to the corrective measures that the state can adopt in order to make it effective. The general view, held by many commentators and the public at large, is that land reform has failed. Formerly productive farms are now largely unproductive, because of a combination of poor planning, inexperienced new owners, overcrowding and insufficient post-settlement support. A recent article in the Mail & Guardian weekly newspaper (19 March 2010) reports that 90 per cent of land reform projects have failed. The current ministry responsible for land reform in the Zuma administration, headed by Gugile Nkwinti, is working on a strategic plan for 2010 to 2013 that moots a form of land nationalization (requiring a change in the constitution) and the implementation of a quit-rent system. Land would become a national asset with farmers leasing land from the state and paying taxes (a perpetual quit rent) to the state, as is the case in Mozambique. A second option is the enforcement of a ceiling on the amount of land that an individual can own. Land reform is indeed at the crossroads. Another indication that land reform is at the crossroads is the cash flow crisis of the various provincial land claims commissions that deal with land restitution processes. This has stymied their ability to settle land claims already adjudicated by the land claims court. At the same time, newspapers and other media have reported cases in which members of the political and business elite who have acquired land under the land reform programme have been bailed out by the state to pay their debts.
