Globalization of South African Land Reform Scheme: An Interrogation

Abstract

Land and land-related issues were one of the factors responsible for colonialism and apartheid in South Africa. Thus, land has always been at the centre of shaping the interaction, events and transactions unfolding between the Global North and the Global South. Literature records a history of resistance against foreign imperialism and colonialism because of land security for the African indigenous population. In post-colonial Africa, land policies have taken the centre stage in the quest to redress the historical distortion of land, achieve sustainable peace, development and combat structural violence. This captures the South African experience. Indeed, changes in the land tenure system and land relations are part of the broader process of state-building, human capacity building, agrarian and sustainable development. The post-apartheid state therefore considers the implementation of land reform programmes as a matter of necessity. However, despite concerted efforts to use land reform as an instrument of change and development, land reform in South Africa, like its counterparts in Africa, has generated diverse contradictions and failed to achieve the governments’ targets and public expectations. Through historical conversations and unstructured interviews, this chapter interrogates the liberalization of land policy, examines the trajectories of land reforms in South Africa and particularly evaluates the state’s performance in the land reform project. This chapter finds that the reality of land reform in Africa has not achieved equity or redressed historical injustices, rather it has been driven by a neoliberal order that favours global capitalism and the logic of the market. Thus, a pragmatic approach is required for South Africa to redress land inequality and appropriate the gains of land reform.