Land reform: The World Bank finally sees the light
A new report by the World Bank, virtually ignored by the international media, categorically comes out in favour of comprehensive land reform in South Africa as the only means of reducing income disparities and promoting social cohesion. This is in stark contrast to a similar situation in Zimbabwe in 2000 when the Bank and Western nations punished the Southern African country for attempting to take back its land. Baffour Ankomah reports.
AFTER nearly 20 years of opposing land reform in Zimbabwe and supporting stiff economic sanctions on the Southern African country, including the infamous denial of credit and debt postponement in March 2006, the World Bank has finally seen the light and is supporting land reform in South Africa, including even land expropriation without compensation.
In a landmark report, the World Bank says “South Africa has come a long way since the advent of democracy, but its transition remains incomplete” because “the highly skewed distribution of land and productive assets is a source of inequality and social fragility, fuelling contestation over resources.”
On April 30, this year, the World Bank released a 147-page report titled An Incomplete Transition: Overcoming the legacy of exclusion in South Africa, which endorsed the South African government’s view contained in its 1994 Reconstruction and Development Programme (which it also quoted in the 2012 National Development Plan) that: “No political democracy can survive and flourish if the mass of our people remain in poverty, without land, without tangible prospects for a better life. Attacking poverty and deprivation must therefore be the first priority of a democratic government.”
The contents of the report are so revolutionary and so contrary to what the Western world and the multilateral financial institutions they control did against Zimbabwe on account of its land reform programme, which started in 2000, that the West’s major TV channels and newspapers that were at the forefront of the propaganda war against Zimbabwe have refused to publish the report — except for the right-wing American TV channel, One American News Network (referred to as OAN).
On 30 April, when the report came out, the OAN, in line with its right-wing views, ran a story criticising the World Bank for “controversially” supporting an “anti-White” land-expropriation-without-compensation programme in South Africa that, according to OAN-quoted sources, would lead to “White genocide” in that country.
So far, that has been about the only story on the report by a major Western TV channel or newspaper. The others have all chosen silence as a way of living with the embarrassment of unwittingly being told by the World Bank that they were wrong in fighting against land reform in Zimbabwe, a country where all the elements and factors that the World Bank now says justify land expropriation without compensation, were present.
The report, which the World Bank calls a Systematic Country Diagnostic(SCD), was done in collaboration with the South African government. It virtually, though unwittingly, vindicates Zimbabwe’s much-maligned land reform programme and the man who led it, former President Robert Mugabe.
The epiphany
According to the report, the World Bank Group’s twin goals are to help countries to eliminate poverty by 2030 and boost shared prosperity (that is, reduce inequality).
“These goals are also enshrined in South Africa’s Vision 2030 in the National Development Plan,” the report says. “The World Bank Group is preparing for its 2019–2022 Country Partnership Framework with South Africa, and drafted this Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) to strengthen its understanding of key constraints to achieving these twin goals.”
This SCD was led by Marek Hanusch (senior economist, World Bank) under the guidance of Paul Noumba Um (country director, World Bank) and Saleem Karimjee (country manager, International Finance Corporation).
The report was prepared under a memorandum of understanding in collaboration with South Africa’s National Planning Commission, in the context of the National Development Plan, and with a large number of government counterparts.
“Although the views outlined [in the report] are those of the World Bank Group, they were formed in direct conversation with South Africans, including the National Planning Commission, government officials, the private sector, academics, young people, and members of trade unions,” the Preamble of the report reveals.
“The broad policy priorities identified are expected to strengthen job creation, and reduce poverty and inequality,” the Preamble continues.
“This compact is an essential foundation on which to build the country’s future. In this context, the private sector will have to play a more active role in shaping policy and creating jobs.”
Explaining further, the Preamble says the World Bank Group consulted widely for this SCD, which draws on a large number of background notes and aligns with the World Bank’s World Development Report 2006: Equity and Development and is anchored in South Africa’s NDP and its guardian, the National Planning Commission.
“A broad range of stakeholders were [also] consulted, including various government departments (especially the National Treasury and the Department of Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation), the South African Reserve Bank, and members of the diplomatic corps.”
Remarkably, the report and the events leading to it were paid for by South Korea’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance through its Global Facility for Growth and Development.
The summary
For Zimbabweans, whose country was so maligned and sanctioned by the West — sanctions avidly supported by the World Bank and IMF — for embarking on the same course of land reform to redress colonial sins and fight inequality, the sum of the World Bank’s new report makes unpalatable reading.
“All countries are products of their history,” the World Bank now concedes without any trace of irony or embarrassment.
“Race-based exclusion is a defining feature of South Africa’s history. [As such] South Africa is a highly diverse country marked by inequality. [And] given the extent to which exclusion in South Africa is linked to land, it is unsurprising that land reform remains an emotional topic. In rural areas, advancing land reform remains critical.”
All these factors and elements were present in Zimbabwe. But the report goes on: “Land redistribution [in South Africa] has been slow and the impacts on poverty are unclear; yet it is important for social sustainability. But the legacy of exclusion in land, labour, capital, and product markets hampers growth. Undoing the legacy of exclusion is a long-term process, and expectations need to be managed carefully.”
And not only that: “Property rights are critical for all South Africans to leverage their assets in support of economic growth, household incomes, and jobs,” the report continues.
“Despite some progress, wealth and land ownership remain highly concentrated.”
Full article on www.herald.co.zw