The Limits to Land Reform

Rethinking 'the Land Question

Bibliographic Data

ID4603906
AuthorsC Walker (0000-0003-2523-6653, Stellenbosch University, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume31
Issue4
Pages805-824
Publication date2005-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Southern African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0305-7070 • E-ISSN: 1465-3893
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03057070500370597
OpenAlexW2141423919
LanguageEN
Citations received26

This article argues that a mismatch exists between the political aspirations and popular expectations that surround 'the land question' in South Africa and the transformative potential of land reform itself. A disjuncture also exists between the national discourse around land reform, in which progress is measured in terms of the speed at which national targets are reached, and the requirements for effective implementation at project level. The article reviews the process whereby a moderate programme of land reform, which prioritised land restitution, emerged out of the constitutional negotiations in the early 1990s, and outlines the modest achievements of the programme to date. It also highlights the limits to land reform that derive not from policy or programme failures but rather from the intersection of significant demographic, ecological and social constraints. It concludes by proposing the need for a reconceptualisation of the land question at the start of the 21st century, given that South Africa is no longer the agrarian country it was when the Natives Land Act of 1913 was passed. Notes 1 D. Hanekom, 'Speech to be Delivered by Mr Derek Hanekom MP, Minister of Land Affairs, on the Occasion of the Budget Presentation of the Department of Land Affairs (hereafter DLA): National Assembly, 9 September 1994' (unpublished document, copy in Legal Resources Centre Library, Cape Town). 2 M. Aliber and R. Mokoena, 'The Land Question in Contemporary South Africa', in J. Daniel, A. Habib and R. Southall (eds), State of the Nation. South Africa 2003–2004 (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2003), pp. 342, 344. 3 Informal 'think-tank', 'Seeking ways out of the impasse on land reform in southern Africa. Notes from an informal "think-tank" meeting' (unpublished report on a meeting held at the Manhattan Hotel, Pretoria, South Africa, 1–2 March 2003). 4 Surplus People Project, Forced Removals in South Africa. The SPP Reports, Volume 1. General Overview (Cape Town, Surplus People Project, 1983), p. 6. 5 The phrase comes from C. Murray, 'Displaced Urbanisation', in J. Lonsdale (ed.), South Africa in Question (Cambridge, London and Portsmouth, Cambridge African Studies Centre, James Currey and Heinemann Educational Books, 1988), pp. 110– 33. 6 See C. Walker, 'Piety in the Sky? Gender Policy and Land Reform in South Africa', Journal of Agrarian Change, 3, 1 & 2 (January and April 2003), pp. 113–48. 7 W. D. Thwala, 'Land and Agrarian Reform in South Africa' (http://www.nlc.co.za, n.d., accessed 7 July 2003), p. 2. 8 National Land Committee, 'Benoni Ruling a Victory for SA's 26-million Landless People', press release dated 21 February 2003 (http://www.nlc.co.za/news.htm, accessed 7 July 2003). 9 See Statistics South Africa, 'Agricultural Surveys, 1994, 1995 and 1996' (Pretoria, Government Printer, 1996) and Statistics South Africa, Census of Commercial Agriculture, 2002. Financial and Production Statistics (Pretoria, Government Printer, 2002). 10 Aliber and Mokoena, 'The Land Question', p. 336. 11 See, for instance, C. McEachern, 'Mapping the Memories: Politics, Place and Identity in the District Six Museum, Cape Town', in A. Zegeye (ed.), Social Identities in the New South Africa. After Apartheid – Volume One (Cape Town, Kwela Books and Maroelana, South African History Online, 2001), and A. Nagia, 'Land Restitution in District Six: Settling a Traumatic Landscape', in C. Rassool and S. Prosalendis (eds), Recalling Community in Cape Town. Creating and Curating the District Six Museum (Cape Town, District Six Museum, 2001). 12 The following account draws on my experience as Regional Land Claims Commissioner for KwaZulu-Natal between 1995 and 2000. See C. Walker, 'Land of Dreams. A History of the Land Claim on the Eastern Shores' (unpublished paper presented at the Conference on Environment of the St Lucia Wetland: Processes of Change, Cape Vidal, 4–7 September 2003). 13 C. Walker, 'Relocating Restitution', Transformation, 44 (2000), pp. 7–8. 14 Cited in A. Claassens, 'For Whites Only – Land Ownership in South Africa', in M. de Klerk (ed.), A Harvest of Discontent. The Land Question in South Africa (Cape Town, Institute for a Democratic Alternative for South Africa, 1991), p. 43. 15 H. Klug, Constituting Democracy. Law, Globalism and South Africa's Political Reconstruction (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 132. 16 Z. Skweyiya, 'Towards the Solution of the Land Question in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Problems and Models' (unpublished paper presented at a Workshop, 'Towards a New Agrarian Democratic Order', Agricultural University of Wageningen, 12–14 November 1989), p. 1. 17 Ibid., pp. 16–17. 18 H. Marais, South Africa: Limits to Change. The Political Economy of Transformation (London and New York, Zed Books, and Cape Town, University of Cape Town Press, 1998), p. 147. 19 Klug, Constituting Democracy, p. 126. 20 National Land Committee, 'Document for Discussion by NLC affiliates on Property and Land Clause in Bill of Rights' (unpublished internal discussion document, n.d. [1992], copy available in Legal Resources Centre Library, Cape Town), pp. 3–4. 21 Republic of South Africa, White Paper on Land Reform (Pretoria, Government Printer, 1991), p. 13. 22 Interview with Sheila Camerer, Cape Town, 22 September 2003. 23 Republic of South Africa, White Paper, p. 6. 24 Republic of South Africa, 'Government's Proposals on a Charter of Fundamental Rights, 2 February 1993' (Pretoria, Government Printer, 1993), p. 11. 25 For details on the campaign, see Association for Rural Advancement (AFRA), 'The National Land Restoration Campaign: An Overview', in AFRA News (May 1992) and AFRA, 'No Land, No Rural Vote', in AFRA (August/September 1993). 26 Interview, Geoff Budlender (previously a member of the Land Claims Working Group), Cape Town, 20 June 2002. 27 A. Claassens, 'Compensation for Expropriation: The Political and Economic Parameters', in M. Venter and M. Anderson (eds), 'Land, Property Rights and the New Constitution' (collected papers from a conference hosted by the Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape, 21–23 May 1993), p. 60. 28 Unsigned memorandum entitled 'Land Restoration Act' (1993), p. 3, attributable to the Land Claims Working Group (File box P:L/C-SA, L16, Legal Resources Centre Library, Cape Town). On the urban claims debate, see Southern Africa Education Trust Fund, 'ANC Land Commission Workshop in Cape Town', in Southern Africa Education Trust Fund, Constitutional and Legal Commission, 'Participants' Report on Land Reform in South Africa' (Ottawa, March 1992). 29 Interview with Aninka Claassens (previously a member of the Land Claims Working Group), Cape Town, 19 June 2002. 30 Ibid. 31 World Bank, 'Options for Land Reform and Rural Restructuring in South Africa' (Washington, World Bank, 1993), pp. 73–4. 32 See Republic of South Africa, Act 200 of 1993. Sub-sections of the equality clause (clause 8) protect measures designed to advance 'persons or groups or categories of persons disadvantaged by unfair discrimination' from constitutional challenge. 33 AFRA, 'Will the Property Clause Deliver on Restoration?', in AFRA News (December 1993), p. 5. 34 Republic of South Africa, The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996), Clause 25. 35 African National Congress, The Reconstruction and Development Programme (Johannesburg, Umanyano Publishers, 1994), p. 20. 36 The total represents budgeted allocations, not actual annual expenditure. See C. Walker, 'Delivery and Disarray: The Multiple Meanings of Land Restitution', in J. Daniel, R. Southall, S. Buhlungu and J. Lutchman (eds), State of the Nation 3: South Africa 2005–2006 (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2005) for details on the DLA budget between 1997 and 2005. 37 Information on the Defence budget comes from South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR), South Africa Survey 2000/01 (Johannesburg, SAIRR, 2001), p. 515. 38 Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, Annual Report. April '98 – March '99 (Pretoria, Government Printer, 1999), p. 9. 39 A. du Toit, P. Makhari, H. Garner and A. Roberts, 'Report: Ministerial Review of the Restitution Programme' (Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 1998), p. 75. 40 Ibid., p. 10. 41 See Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, 'National Implementation Plan. Restitution High Drive 2008', (presentation to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs, 18 March 2005) and DLA, 'Presentation to the Select Committee on the 2005 Strategic Plan', (presentation by Mr Glen Thomas, Acting Director General, 4 April 2005), slide 11. For a discussion on the reliability of the official numbers, see R. Hall, 'Land Restitution in South Africa: Rights, Development and the Restrained State', Canadian Journal of African Studies, 38, 3 (2004) and Walker, 'Delivery and Disarray'. 42 DLA, 'Presentation on the 2005 Strategic Plan', slide 10. 43 Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, ' National Implementation Plan'. 44 In 2004 the Chief Land Claims Commissioner suggested that up to 50 per cent of Northern Limpopo and Eastern Mpumalanga was subject to claim. In March 2005 the Minister of Land Affairs announced that President Mbeki's 2002 target for completing the restitution programme by the end of 2005 was being shifted to March 2008. See Walker, 'Delivery and Disarray'. 45 African National Congress, Reconstruction and Development Programme, p. 22. 46 Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs, 'Policy Statement by the Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs for Strategic Directions on Land Issues' (Ministry for Agriculture and Land Affairs, Pretoria, February 2000), p. 13. 47 DLA, 'Presentation on the 2005 Strategic Plan', slide 10. 48 The DLA reported a total of 3,578,919 hectares to Parliament in April 2005, but this figure includes the transfer of state-owned land to black beneficiaries (772,660 ha) (DLA, 'Presentation on the 2005 Strategic Plan', slide 10). 49 See, for instance, Association for Rural Advancement, 'Land Reform: How Has it Helped?', in AFRA News (May 2003) and Walker, 'Piety in the Sky?'. 50 See, for instance, R. Hall, P. Jacobs and E. Lahiff, 'Evaluating Land and Agrarian Reform in South Africa. Final Report' (Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2003); Integrated Rural and Regional Development Research Programme, 'Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development: Case Studies in Three Provinces. Final Report' (unpublished report, HSRC, 2003); Legal Entities Assessment Project (LEAP), 'Leaping the Fissures: Bridging the Gap between Paper and Real Practice in Setting up Common Property Institutions in Land Reform in South Africa,' (Occasional Paper no. 19, Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2002). 51 Thwala, ' Land and Agrarian Reform', p. 20. 52 M. Lyne and M. Darroch, 'Land Redistribution in South Africa. Past Performance and Future Policy', in L. Nieuwoudt and J. Groenewald (eds), The Challenge of Change. Agriculture, Land and the South African Economy (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 2003), p. 79. 53 See Walker, 'Piety in the Sky'. 54 See C. Walker, 'Women, Tradition and Reconstruction', Review of African Political Economy, 21, 61 (1994), pp. 347–58. 55 Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs, 'Address by the Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs, Ms Thoko Didiza, at the Budget Vote of the Department of Land Affairs, 1 April 2003' (Pretoria, Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs, 2003), p. 4. 56 W. Beinart, Twentieth-Century South Africa (Oxford, New York, Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 261; Statistics South Africa, Census 2001 (http://www.statssa.gov.za/census01/html/default.asp (accessed 30 May 2005). 57 P. Kok, M. O'Donovan, O. Bouare and J. van Zyl, Post-Apartheid Patterns of Internal Migration in South Africa (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2003). 58 See G. Hart, Disabling Globalisation. Places of Power in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 2002), p. 305. 59 R. Cowling, 'Options for Rural Land Use in Southern Africa: An Ecological Perspective', in de Klerk (ed.), Harvest of Discontent, pp. 15, 12. 60 Statistics South Africa, Stats in Brief 2000 (Pretoria, Government Printer, 2000); DLA, 'Extent of State Land in the Republic of South Africa' (unpublished memorandum, Directorate: Public Land Support Services, 2002). 61 Kok et al., Post-Apartheid Patterns of Internal Migration. 62 See, inter alia, D. Mullins, 'Land Reform. Poverty Reduction and HIV/AIDS' (unpublished paper presented at the Conference on Land Reform and Poverty Alleviation in Southern Africa, 4–5 June 2001, Southern African Regional Policy Network, HSRC). 63 See S. Shackleton, C. Shackleton and B. Cousins, 'The Economic Value of Land and Natural Resources to Rural Livelihoods: Case Studies from South Africa', in B. Cousins (ed.), At the Crossroads: Land and Agrarian Reform in South Africa into the 21st Century (Belville, Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies and Braamfontein, National Land Committee, 2000). Additional informationNotes on contributorsCherryl Walker * I wish to acknowledge the generous support of the John D Cathere T Mac Arthur Foundation towards the research that is drawn upon this article

Agriculture · Archaeology · Economics · Geography · Land law · Land reform · Land tenure · Political economy · Political science · Pure land · Land Rights and Reforms

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