Tackling obstacles to land reform programme

The ANC’s transformative approach mustn’t jeopardise food security, production

COMMENT

ACURSORY review of the ANC’s national policy conference report yields a decidedly different land reform landscape after its elective conference starting tomorrow, at which these proposals are expected to be adopted.

Among the report’s interesting observations about land reform is its strong sentiment that not enough progress has been made. It states: “The programme of land redistribution has been inadequate. Not enough productive land has been transferred into the hands of black farmers and producers.”

In response to this challenge, the report proposes that the conference consider these options:

1: The constitution should be amended to allow the state to expropriate land without compensation.

2: The state should act more aggressively to expropriate land in line with the Mangaung resolution.

At its Mangaung conference in 2012, the ANC resolved to replace the willing buyer, willing seller approach with the “just and equitable” principle in the constitution. Since then, the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has worked to implement the resolutions by introducing a plethora of land reform policies, the most recent of which is the draft bill on communal land tenure, whose overarching objective is to transfer ownership of land by the state to communities.

This, notwithstanding the slow pace of land reform and the dismal failure of government to meet its targets set in 1996, is an issue the policy conference report bemoans and one which it seeks to table at the forthcoming conference.

Accurate official information on the land redistributed since 1994 is difficult to come by, including information on how much of it is productive. A recent audit by Agri SA, however, confirms that very little progress has been made to radically transfer land to historically dispossessed blacks in general. According to this report, both the government and previously disadvantaged individuals (PDIs) bought 8.9 million hectares of land between 1994 and 2016.

The report shows that in 1994, agricultural land totalled 97 million hectares, of which 82.5 million were owned by white commercial farmers and only 14.5 million by government and PDIs.

The report further shows that last year, South Africa’s agricultural land declined to 93.5 million hectares, of which 68.5 million were owned by white commercial farmers and 25 million by government and PDIs. This represents a slight increase of 9.7 million hectares between 1994 and last year.

The biggest challenge facing the land reform programme in South Africa today are the millions of hectares of unproductive land that have been given to rightful owners as part of the restitution process. It is widely acknowledged by sector players including the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries that a major cause of this unproductivity is the lack of capacity and skills of those who received land as well as lack of access to finance. This is a barrier that serves to reverse agricultural transformation in South Africa.

The issue of unproductive land is some- thing the conference ought to seriously deliberate on with a view to chart a clearer policy direction. The ruling party would be wise to recognise that any calls for redistribution without addressing the issue of unproductive land would be fruitless. Furthermore, with agricultural land declining, issues around food security and agricultural production become more critical to address and with any policy response, attempts should be made to fully understand the extent and causes of these problems to properly address them.

However, the ANC does not have the requisite two-thirds majority to effect amendments to the constitution to implement its 2012 Mangaung conference resolution. Will the ANC consider the EFF’s offer to vote with it in support of this constitutional amendment?

A transformative approach to land reform need not jeopardise food security and agricultural production.

Maseti is a policy analyst with experience in government, development and the agricultural sectors.