‘Willing buyer, willing seller’: South Africa's failed experiment in market-led agrarian reform

Abstract

Since its transition to democracy, South Africa has implemented a multifaceted programme of land reform to address problems of historical dispossession and rural poverty, relying heavily on the concept of ‘willing buyer, willing seller’. This version of market-led agrarian reform has been influenced by the World Bank but enjoys support from landowners and elements within the ruling African National Congress committed to maintaining the structure of large-scale, capital-intensive farming. Central to the South African approach is the voluntary acquisition of land, but also important have been the methods of beneficiary selection, of farm planning and of post-settlement support, all of which have been influenced by the market-led approach and serve to discriminate against the very poor. The rate of land transfer remains far below official targets and the limited available evidence suggests that, where land has been transferred, it has made little positive impact on livelihoods or on the wider rural economy. Key to understanding the slow pace of reform is the lack of mobilisation and militancy among the rural poor and landless, who to date have had minimal influence over the design and implementation of the land reform programme.

Notes

I wish to thank Ben Cousins, Saturnino Borrras Jr. and Cristobal Kay for their valuable comments on the draft article. Responsibility for the final product rests with the author.

1 H Bernstein, ‘South Africa's agrarian question: extreme and exceptional?’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 23 (2 – 3), 1996, p 41.

2 L Thompson, A History of South Africa, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985, p 109.

3 See R Levin & D Weiner, ‘The agrarian question and the emergence of conflicting agricultural strategies in South Africa’, in S Matlhape & A Munz (eds), Towards a New Agrarian Democratic Order, Amsterdam: saert, 1991, p 92. For 1996 the South African Census reported a total population of 40.5 million, broken down in the following terms: African = 76.7%; White = 10.9%; Coloured (mixed race) = 8.9%; Indian/Asian = 2.6%; Unspecified/Other = 0.9%. Statistics South Africa, The People of South Africa: Population Census 1996—Census in Brief, Pretoria: Statistics South Africa, 1998.

4 See F Hendricks, The Pillars of Apartheid: Land Tenure, Rural Planning and the Chieftaincy, Uppsala: University of Uppsala, 1990; B Cousins, ‘Livestock production and common property struggles in South Africa's agrarian reform’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 23 (2 – 3), 1996; and E Lahiff, An Apartheid Oasis: Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods in Venda, London: Frank Cass, 2000.

5 J May, ‘Growth, development, poverty and inequality’, in May (ed), Poverty and Inequality in South Africa: Meeting the Challenge, Cape Town: David Philip, 2000, p 2.

6 H Marais, South Africa: Limits to Change—The Political-Economy of Transition, London: Zed Books, 1998.

7 The African National Congress (anc) was founded in 1912. During the struggle against apartheid (1948 – 94) it contained both nationalist and socialist factions, and has a long-standing alliance with the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions. The anc was victorious in the general elections of 1994 (when it formed a multiparty Government of National Unity under the leadership of Nelson Mandela) and again in 1999 and 2004 (under the leadership of Thabo Mbeki).

8 AJ Van der Walt, ‘Property rights and hierarchies of power: a critical evaluation of land reform policy in South Africa’, Koers, 2 – 3 (64), 1999; L Ntsebeza, ‘Land redistribution in South Africa: the property clause revisited’, in L Ntsebeza & R Hall (eds), The Land Question in South Africa: The Challenge of Transformation and Redistribution, Cape Town: hsrc Press, 2007, pp 107 – 131.

9 oecd, Review of Agricultural Policies: South Africa, Paris: oecd, 2006, p 11.

10 In 1994 – 95, 81.9% of the territory (85 million hectares) was used for grazing, 10.9% (13.3 million ha) for dryland cropping and just 1.2% (1.5 million ha) for irrigated cropping. Statistics South Africa, Land Accounts—Including Land-use and Land-cover—for South Africa, 1994/1995, Pretoria: Statistics South Africa, 2004.

11 Agriculture accounted for 10% of formal employment in 2002. Its share of gdp fell from 9.12% in 1965 to just 3.2% in 2002. N Vink & J Kirsten, ‘Agriculture in the national economy’, in L Niewoudt & J Groenwald (eds), The Challenge of Change: Agriculture, Land and South African Economy, Scottsville: University of Natal Press, 2003.

12 C Bundy, The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry, London: Heinemann, 1979.

13 Republic of South Africa, Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996), Pretoria: Government Printer, 1996.

14 Department of Land Affairs, White Paper on South African Land Policy, Pretoria: Department of Land Affairs, 1997, p 38.

15 Previously called the Provision of Certain Land for Settlement Act (Act 126 of 1993), until its amendment and renaming in 1998.

16 See World Bank, South African Agriculture: Structure, Performance and Options for the Future. Washington, DC: World Bank, 1994; Marais, South Africa; and R Hall, P Jacobs & E Lahiff, Evaluating Land and Agrarian Reform in South Africa: Final Report, Cape Town: Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2003.

17 The South African currency is the Rand (R). In April 1994, R1 was equal to roughly US$0.28 (R3.58 = US$1); by April 2007 the value of the Rand stood at roughly US$0.14 (R6.97 = US$1).

18 See K Deininger & J May, Can there be Growth with Equity? An Initial Assessment of Land Reform in South Africa, Policy Research Working paper 2451, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2000; E Lahiff, ‘The impact of land reform policy in the Northern Province’, in B Cousins (ed), At the Crossroads: Land and Agrarian Reform in South Africa into the 21st Century, Cape Town/Johannesburg: Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape/National Land Committee, 2000; and S Turner, Land and Agrarian Reform in South Africa: A Status Report, 2002, Cape Town: Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2002.

19 For a variety of perspectives on share equity schemes, see K Deininger & J May, Can there be Growth with Equity?; D Mayson, Joint Ventures, Cape Town: Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2003; and K Kleinbooi, E Lahiff & B Tom, ‘Land reform, farm employment and livelihoods: Western Cape case study—Theewaterskloof local municipality’, unpublished report, Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape and Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, 2006.

20 M Wegerif, A Critical Appraisal of South Africa's Market-based Land Reform Policy: The Case of the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (lrad) Programme in Limpopo, Cape Town: Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2004.

21 G Williams, ‘Setting the agenda: a critique of the World Bank's rural restructuring programme for South Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 22 (1), 1996, p 139.

22 See Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Delivery of Land and Agrarian Reform, Report to the National Land Summit, Pretoria: Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs, 2005; and P Jacobs, E Lahiff & R Hall, Land Redistribution, Cape Town: Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2003.

23 MC Lyne & MAG Darroch, Land Redistribution in South Africa: Past Performance and Future Policy, basis crsp Research Paper, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2003.

24 M Wegerif, B Russell & I Grundling, Summary of Key Findings from the National Evictions Survey, Polokwane: Nkuzi Development Association, 2005.

25 Department of Land Affairs, Media briefing by Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Lulu Xingwana, 7 September 2006, at http://land.pwv.gov.za/publications/news/press_releases/KEYMES∼2.DOC.

26 Centre for Development and Enterprise, Land Reform in South Africa: A 21st Century Perspective, Johannesburg: cde Research report 14, 2005, p 22.

27 For detailed exposition of this position, see H Binswanger & K Deininger, ‘South African land policy: the legacy of history and current options’, in J van Zyl, J Kirsten & HP Binswanger (eds), Agricultural Land Reform in South Africa: Policies, Markets and Mechanisms, Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1996; J Van Zyl & H Binswanger, ‘Market-assisted rural land reform: how will it work?’, in van Zyl et al, Agricultural Land Reform in South Africa; M Lipton, ‘Rural reforms and rural livelihoods: the context of international experience’, in M Lipton, M de Klerk & M Lipton (eds), Land, Labour and Livelihoods in Rural South Africa, 2 vols, Durban: Indicator Press, 1996; K Deininger & J May, Can there be Growth with Equity; and R Van den Brink, G Thomas, H Binswanger, J Bruce & F Byamugisha, Consensus, Confusion, and Controversy: Selected Land Reform Issues in Sub-Saharan Africa, World Bank Working Paper 71, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006.

28 See A Mngxitama, ‘The taming of land resistance: lessons from the National Land Committee’, Journal of Asian and African Studies, 41(1 – 2), 2006, pp 39 – 69; WD Thwala, ‘Land and agrarian reform in South Africa’, in Peter M Rosset, Raj Patel & Michael Courville (eds), Promised Land: Competing Visions of Agrarian Reform, Oakland, CA: Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy, 2006; L Ntsebeza, ‘Land redistribution in South Africa: the property clause revisited’, in Ntsebeza & Hall, The Land Question in South Africa; and C Walker, ‘Redistributive land reform: for what and for whom?’, in Ntsebeza & Hall, The Land Question in South Africa.

29 S Greenberg, ‘The landless people's movement and the failure of post-apartheid South Africa’, in R Ballard et al (eds), Voices of Protest: Social Movements in Post-apartheid South Africa, Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2006; and Mngxitama, ‘The taming of land resistance’.

30 M Andrews, ‘Struggling for a life in dignity’, in Ntsebeza & Hall, The Land Question in South Africa.

31 See R Levin, R Russon & D Weiner, ‘Class, gender and the politics of rural land reform’, in R Levin et al (eds), “No More Tears”: Struggles for Land in Mpumalanga, South Africa, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1997; Jacobs et al, Land Redistribution; SM Kariuki, Creating the Black Commercial Farmers in South Africa, ASC Working Paper 56/2004, Leiden: African Studies Centre, 2004; E Lahiff & B Cousins, ‘Smallholder agriculture and land reform in South Africa’, ids Bulletin, 36(2), 2005; B Cousins, ‘Agrarian reform and the “two economies”: transforming South Africa's countryside’, in Ntsebeza & Hall, The Land Question in South Africa; R Hall, ‘Transforming rural South Africa? Taking stock of land reform’, in Ntsebeza & Hall, The Land Question in South Africa; and C Walker, ‘Redistributive land reform’.

32 An average of 6.3% of rural land was transacted per year in the period 1995 – 2000, but this included a high proportion of inter-family transfers (inheritance). M Aliber & R. Mokoena, The Interaction Between the Land Redistribution Programme and the Land Market in South Africa: A Perspective on the Willing-Buyer/Willing-Seller Approach, Cape Town: Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, 2002.

33 Insufficient budgets to fund approved projects have been a recurring problem since about 2003, leading to additional (post-approval) delays in transactions. R Hall & E Lahiff, Budgeting for Land Reform, Policy Brief 13, Cape Town: Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2004, p 2.

34 Aliber & Mokoena, The Interaction Between the Land Redistribution Programme and the Land Market in South Africa.

35 Ibid, p 27.

36 S Tilley, Why do the Landless Remain Landless? An examination of land acquisition and the extent to which the land market and land redistribution mechanisms serve the needs of land-seeking people, Cape Town: Surplus People Project, 2004, p 10.

37 Gert Raal, vice-chair of AgriLimpopo quoted in the Mail and Guardian, 22 April 2005.

38 Tilley, Why do the Landless Remain Landless?, 2004, p 38.

39 K Deininger, Making Negotiated Land Reform Work: Initial Experience from Brazil, Colombia and South Africa, Policy Research Working Paper 2040, Washington, DC: World Bank, 1999, p 12.

40 See the following for examples of monitoring and evaluation exercises and discussions of their limitations: Department of Land Affairs, Annual Quality of Life Report, 1998, Pretoria: Department of Land Affairs, 1998; I Naidoo, Measuring the Impact of the Land Reform Programme: Some Issues for Consideration, Directorate: Monitoring and Evaluation, Department of Land Affairs, 1999; J May & B Roberts, Monitoring and Evaluating the Quality of Life of Land Reform Beneficiaries: 1998/1999—Summary Report prepared for the Department of Land Affairs, 2000; A Ahmed, P Jacobs, R Hall, W Kapery, R Omar & M Schwartz, Monitoring and Evaluating the Quality of Life of Land Reform Beneficiaries 2000/2001, technical report prepared for the Department of Land Affairs, Directorate of Monitoring and Evaluation, Pretoria, 2003.

41 E Lahiff, ‘The impact of land reform policy in the Northern Province’; M Wegerif, A Critical Appraisal of South Africa's Market-based Land Reform Policy; Jacobs et al, Land Redistribution; R Hall, ‘lrad Rapid Systematic Assessment Survey: nine case studies in the Eastern Cape’, unpublished paper, Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2004; Human Sciences Research Council, ‘Land redistribution for agricultural development: case studies in three provinces’, unpublished report, Integrated Rural and Regional Development division, hsrc, Pretoria, 2003.

42 Jacobs et al, Land Redistribution.

43 R Hall, Land and Agrarian Reform in South Africa: A Status Report 2004, Cape Town: Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2004.

44 F Zimmerman, ‘Barriers to participation of the poor in South Africa's land redistribution’, World Development, 28 (8), 2000, pp 1439 – 1460.

45 Aliber & Mokoena, The Interaction Between the Land Redistribution Programme and the Land Market in South Africa.

46 Van den Brink et al, Consensus, Confusion and Controversy, p 45.

47 See Lahiff, ‘The impact of land reform policy in the Northern Province’; Human Sciences Research Council, ‘Land redistribution for agricultural development’; Jacobs et al, Land Redistribution; Wegerif, A Critical Appraisal of South Africa's Market-based Land Reform Policy; Hall, ‘lrad Rapid Systematic Assessment Survey’; and A Bradstock, Key Experiences of Land Reform in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, London: FARM-Africa, 2005.

48 Lahiff, ‘The impact of land reform policy’; Human Sciences Research Council, ‘Land redistribution for agricultural development’.

49 Jacobs et al, Land Redistribution; C Walker, ‘Piety in the sky? Gender policy and land reform in South Africa’, Journal of Agrarian Change, 3 (1 – 2), 2003, pp 113 – 148; and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Review of Communal Property Institutions, Pretoria: csir, 2005.

50 Lahiff & Cousins, ‘Smallholder agriculture and land reform in South Africa’.

51 M Aliber, M Roefs & M Reitzes, Auditing the Realisation of Democracy and Human Rights in the Context of Rural Land Reform in South Africa: A Component of the Metagora Pilot Project—Final Technical Report, Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council, 2005; and T Marcus, K Eales & A Wildschut, Down to Earth: Land Demand in the New South Africa, Johannesburg: Land and Agricultural Policy Centre and Durban: Indicator Press, 1996.

52 Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Delivery of Land and Agrarian Reform.

53 Human Sciences Research Council, ‘Land redistribution for agricultural development’; Hall, ‘lrad Rapid Systematic Assessment Survey’; Wegerif, A Critical Appraisal of South Africa's Market-based Land Reform Policy; and Bradstock, Key Experiences of Land Reform in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa.

54 Human Sciences Research Council, ‘Land redistribution for agricultural development’, p 72; Hall, ‘lrad Rapid Systematic Assessment Survey’; and ‘Didiza offers reasons for Limpopo failures’, Farmers Weekly, 18 November 2005.

55 P Jacobs, Support for Agricultural Development, Cape Town: Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2003, p 7. See also R Hall, M Isaacs & M Saruchera, Land and Agrarian Reform in Integrated Development Plans: Case Studies from Selected District and Local Municipalities, Cape Town: Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2004.

56 See Jacobs et al, Land Redistribution.

57 This was most evident at the National Land Summit held in July 2005 where, in front of a large audience of land reform activists and representative of landowners, the denunciation of ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ was led by the Deputy President and the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs. Two years later the policy remained in place.