South Africa — where land reform meets land restitution

Abstract

The pending land reform in South Africa represents a major departure from traditional programs designed to aid the landless tiller. The agricultural labor force in South Africa is a rural proletariat. There are few accomplished tillers and small-scale farm managers. Land reform will necessarily await a land restitution process in which millions of Africans, displaced to the homelands, will seek restoration of traditional areas for housing plots, and for a small piece of their patrimony. Only when such amends for past evictions are complete can a coherent redistribution of land occur.