Land Reform Projects Research Articles

ENGAGING COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES IN SOUTH AFRICA: EVALUATING PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE EXPROPRIATION OF LAND WITHOUT COMPENSATION BILL

The post-1994 era in the South African public imagination was envisaged to herald widespread and transformative efforts to reverse the gross injustices and human rights violations inflicted over many decades of apartheid and colonialism. One of the key measures initiated by the democratic government to drive this nation building project was the land reform programme. The ‘land question’, which is a popular tagline in South Africa when reference is made to land reform, has come to define the general discourse of socioeconomic disadvantage and change in the post-apartheid and post-colonial period – similarly to other former settler colonies in the African continent and the broader Global South. For South Africa though, this specific issue has been characterised by numerous challenges and failures largely at the level of the state, wherein a significant lack of public engagement, public participation and democratic redistribution was not being done according to ‘the will of the people’. On several occasions, the South African state has gone on a ‘solo crusade’ to implement the land reform programme under complex conditions that are largely unfavoured by ordinary people ‘on the ground’ – especially those who were the primary victims of land dispossession under colonialism and apartheid. As a result, over the past few years, indigenous black communities across the country especially in (semi)urban and township areas have voluntarily ‘occupied’ land at their own will and sometimes ‘illegally’, to take up settlement space and determine their lives on the land of their birth. Beyond the public discourse of ‘land invasions’ and ‘failed land reform projects’, this study was conducted to closely understand the extent to which public engagement and participation has been integral in the systematic mechanism(s) to transform the patterns of land ownership and control in the democratic South Africa. To do this, the site of KwaZakhele, Silvertown, in Port Elizabeth was selected to conduct the study. Methodologically, qualitative semi-structured interviews were utilised to conduct the study and the Marxist Concept of Citizenship was selected as a theoretical framework for the study by the researcher. The study has found that, amongst the general legislative and political shortfalls of public participation breakdown, there are other deep seated structural socioeconomic issues that are at the root of the problem – such as economic inequalities and very low prospects of social mobility – which collectively reproduce the persistent inadequacies of political instability and social unrest in the area. The study recommends an astute combination of ‘bottom-up’ active citizenship and major socioeconomic transformation in the area as a systematic and structural mechanism to empower the community of Silvertown to be the champion of its own liberation struggle for the freedom of its people to own land and democratically participate in their own governance, self-determination, and prosperity.

The Effect of the Recapitalisation and Development Programme on Agricultural Production of Land Reform Beneficiaries in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

Access to land is a key part of socio-economic development in South Africa. It can be used as a way of rectifying the injustices of the past and lessening the severity of poverty among beneficiaries. To address the issue of land reform, the Recapitalisation and Development Programme (RECAP) was introduced in 2009. The main objectives of this programme are to increase production, guarantee food security, create employment opportunities within the agricultural sector, and graduate small farmers into commercial farmers. This study aimed to analyse the impact of RECAP on land reform projects, focusing on agricultural production in the Eastern Cape. Both primary and secondary data were used in the study, collected through farm/project visits. The results indicated that the programme has made progress towards improving agricultural production on land reform projects since its inception of RECAP. Through RECAP intervention, land reform beneficiaries gained technical skills.

The Use of Land Reform Projects to Resolve Conflicts and Promote Peace in the War-Torn Local Governments of Northern Uganda

The Use of Land Reform Projects to Resolve Conflicts and Promote Peace in the War-Torn Local Governments of Northern Uganda

Market proximity and irrigation infrastructure determine farmland rentals in Sichuan Province, China

A dynamic market for farmland transactions can contribute to an increase in average farm size and to realising economies of scale in farming. China, with more than 200 million small and fragmented farms, has launched a new wave of land tenure reforms that foster land transfers to increase farm size and to improve agricultural efficiency. However, the factors that influence farmland transactions are far from clear. We aim to understand farmland rental determinants in response to a pilot land reform project in China's south-west Sichuan Province. We collected survey data from 410 farm households and used boosted regression trees to quantify the determinants of the land rentals. Our analyses provide three key findings. First, households with more plots equipped with irrigation infrastructure and closer distances to the nearest town were more likely to rent out land. Second, households rented out a larger share of their land when they had more irrigation infrastructure and lived close to Chengdu, the province capital. Third, the land reform pilot provided a modest but positive stimulus for land rentals. In sum, our results suggest that the supply and demand for land crucially hinges upon plot location and plot infrastructure.

A Review of the Political Economy of South African Land Reform and Its Contested Multifaceted Land Questions

Abstract South African land matters today emanate from the past racially based land dispossession of black communities, which furthered white settler capitalism. Post-apartheid regimes have developed many policies to reverse this legacy, but with little effect. Political parties have blamed the Constitution for the slow pace of land reform, arguing for the need to amend it to clarify ‘expropriation without compensation’. Based on a broad literature review, this article suggests some political, economic and social lessons for South Africa’s land reform. It aims to understand how other countries have dealt with land acquisition for land reform and urban housing development projects, the post-acquisition stage and the reasons for failure and success of some land reforms. This article calls for an alignment of land stakeholders, inclusion of urban land in land reform policies and increasing the powers of provincial officers to improve support for beneficiaries and the subdivision of large farms.

Rethinking Land Reform and Its Contribution to Livelihoods in South Africa

Abstract Land reform in South Africa has been criticised for its failure to significantly improve beneficiaries’ livelihoods. Among the reasons is the government’s stubborn enforcement of large-scale farming on land reform projects. This article presents the experiences of land reform beneficiaries on a single case farm in Limpopo Province, confirming, on one hand, that indeed the capital-intensive model of production negatively affects their production and livelihoods. On the other, the article shows that where alternative land uses are introduced, even alongside large-scale farming, land contributes to beneficiaries’ livelihoods. The article argues that a nuanced analysis that goes beyond the narrow commercial and econometric value of land, to include its social value, allows us to comprehend the full extent of land’s contribution to rural livelihoods in South Africa.

Examining the meanings of ‘restitution’ for beneficiaries of the Macleantown and Salem restitution cases in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

ABSTRACT Through land restitution, a component of land reform, the state seeks to restore the dignity of black communities who lost their land during colonial and apartheid times. Land restitution seeks to return the land that was unfairly grabbed from black people or to offer alternative land or cash compensation. Much public discourse and research on South African land reform has been on the failure of land reform projects and on land acquisition debates. Little research has been published foregrounding the voices of beneficiaries. By capturing their lived experiences after land transfer, this paper examines whether these beneficiaries have been “restituted.” My study in the Macleantown and Salem restitution cases shows that access to land has restored the dignity of beneficiaries and produced nostalgia because of the return of ancestors’ land, although the livelihoods of beneficiaries have not improved and these projects have failed to function. I argue that these land compensated beneficiaries have not been properly ‘restituted,’ because the programme has failed to improve their livelihoods or to produce modern solutions for the restitution programme. Land restitution in these areas has largely not led to land justice because beneficiaries are living in poverty.

Matters of Justice: Pueblos, the Judiciary, and Agrarian Reform in Revolutionary Mexico

The ejido, as idea and reality, has been well covered textually. Essayists reporting on the Mexican Revolution, politicians taking up that revolution's mantle, and scholars examining its seeming neoliberal end have cemented the ejido as central to the history of Mexico's past century. Helga Baitenmann's painstaking new book makes clear that, despite this, we continue to misunderstand key aspects of the twentieth-century ejido's creation.Baitenmann returns to the originary land reform documents of the 1910s and their nineteenth-century precursors to illustrate the unintentional emergence of the communal, government-granted mode of land tenure and management that we understand as the modern ejido. In her introduction and throughout chapters that move from the nineteenth century through the 1920s, Baitenmann contextualizes past scholarly arguments about the ejido's origin and nature as products of accreted political mythmaking. She then uses the legal cases, petitions, and administrative paperwork that proliferated as villagers across Mexico took up each new land reform law to illuminate how the long-standing scholarly distinction between restitution and dotación had little salience for actors at the time. Expedience rather than creating patronage relationships or dependence on a still nascent revolutionary state motivated the turn to land grants and their management by administrative bodies separate from local constitutionally structured governments.Throughout the book, Baitenmann compares Zapatista and Constitutionalist proposals and laws to illuminate the commonalities and conflicts between them. While the Zapatistas aimed to remake social relations and the Constitutionalists remained far more specific in their goals, both pushed primarily for restitution of pueblo lands lost to haciendas. Yet, as Baitenmann makes clear, the burden of proof embedded in a judicial process that borrowed its norms from nineteenth-century law made restitution an often-untenable mechanism for villages to acquire or reacquire land. Even with the creation of a separate agrarian tribunal system under the president's oversight, a violation of the separation of powers that the postrevolutionary Supreme Court accepted for reasons of public benefit, restitution remained time-consuming and impossible for many. Instead, dotación became a temporary fix. The temporary nature of this solution was understood by all, with the eventual goal being privatized, unalienable smallholdings. Yet the legislation anticipated in the procedural documents and court cases examined by Baitenmann never emerged. Instead, the distribution and management mechanisms that villagers, agronomists, and politicians deployed in an ad hoc manner became the norms of twentieth-century Mexican land reform.Baitenmann in no way neglects how politics and corruption shaped this outcome. One of the many strengths of her book is its emphasis on how land policy was shaped as much by conflicts between and within villages as by land seizures by hacendados, the traditional focus of land reform scholarship. Because of their burden of proof requirements, both nineteenth-century and revolutionary restitution laws often revealed irreconcilable overlapping claims between villages, and villagers primarily interacted with the judiciary in attempting to resolve disputes with their neighbors. By focusing on legal matters, Baitenmann also addresses how, even if the Constitutionalist land reform law of January 1915 ultimately guided redistribution, Zapatista and other grassroots approaches shaped its implementation. By exerting pressure on political actors at all levels via all the administrative and judicial tools at their disposal, villagers made clear that their demands for land access could not be ignored. Presidents and the Supreme Court responded by redefining public utility, needed for government expropriation, to include social rights. This permitted the executive to overstep the constitution, deny hacendados access to the amparo rulings that had previously protected their property, and increasingly prioritize equity of access for all Mexicans.This book is tightly focused on the legal and procedural activities that created land reform during and immediately after the Mexican Revolution. Baitenmann makes clear the importance of this early period and the need to take seriously judicial processes that others have dismissed as corrupt, biased, or inaccessible to villagers. The book assumes the readers' considerable knowledge of and investment in debates over Mexican land reform, and its insights will likely take time to penetrate general historical narratives. To that end, Baitenmann could have more explicitly discussed how her findings about early land reform projects revise our understanding of their later application. That, though, is a small critique of a book that demonstrates the importance of rolling back political and historical mythmaking in order to recognize the agency, knowledge, and innovation of actors at all levels. While Matters of Justice challenges our understanding of essential elements of the Mexican Revolution's social project, it does so by emphasizing that all parties saw the need for some degree of real social revolution.

Valoração da distribuição e destruição de ativos biológicos: abordagem da contabilidade ambiental aplicada a um assentamento em conflito na Amazônia brasileira

This article establishes procedures for an accounting-based assessment of the wealth composed of environmental assets – land, forest and timber resources – distributed through land reform actions in the Amazon, in context of conflicts and territorial disputes. The study was carried out in an environmentally differentiated land-reform project, located in Anapu, Pará: the PDS (Sustainable Development Project) Virola-Jatobá. The material and monetary measurement of environmental components of the wealth within the space studied was carried out using the accounting method. Initially, values were determined, both for environmental assets considered to be in the domain of the state, and for those rights to use and exploit environmental resources granted to settled families. Then, damages and losses resulting from an invasion of the settlement's forest reserve, which took place in 2017, were assessed. The invasion by third parties resulted in deforestation, pasture formation and illegal wood extraction in an area where a community forest management plan was implemented. Establishing a monetary value of damages attests that distributive public policies do not effectively face the social reality in the countryside, in which settlements are impacted and weakened by conflicts, territorial disputes and environmental crimes. The inclusion of new theoretical and practical approaches of environmental accounting in multidisciplinary studies can thus contribute to expand the understanding of social, environmental and economic phenomena inherent to public active inclusion policies.

ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ ГАРМОНІЗАЦІЇ СОЦІАЛЬНО-ЕКОНОМІЧНИХ ІНТЕРЕСІВ СУБ’ЄКТІВ ЗЕМЕЛЬНИХ ВІДНОСИН АГРАРНОГО СЕКТОРУ УКРАЇНИ

The article substantiates and formalizes the conceptual approach to balancing the socio-economic interests of the subjects of land relations of the agricultural sector. The main elements of the mechanism of socialization of the system of land relations regulation are determined, which are: 1) increasing the level of social responsibility of the state to society and business in regulating land relations, which is to ensure fair distribution of land rights between land relations and land productivity. on the basis of socialization of land legislation; 2) ensuring the rapid and effective resolution of conflicts of interest of the subjects of land relations related to the violation of land ownership rights, through the introduction of the institution of land mediation; 3) expanding public participation in the processes of defining goals and programs of land reforms according to the interactive model of crowdsourcing start-up. It is proved that the institute of public-private partnership in the system of land relations regulation can serve as an effective means of realization of socially significant projects in the agricultural sector and development of the administration system in the direction of its social stabilization and coordination of interests of land relations subjects. the statebusiness alliance to the format of multilateral partnership in order to maximize the involvement of the active part of society in a broad dialogue in the preparation and implementation of land reform projects. Partnership between government, business and the public in the framework of social responsibility will contribute to the sustainable development of society, reduce non-financial risks for corporations and serve as a prevention of social crises. Thus, the balance of interests of agribusiness, society and the state, the instrument of which is the socialization of land relations, will balance the aspirations of agricultural holdings and small agricultural enterprises to maximize profits, rural population – to a fairer distribution of land resources, the state – to socio-political stability land relations.

Large-Scale Farming and Land Reform Beneficiaries in South Africa: Lessons From a Case Study in Limpopo Province

The South African government intends to improve rural livelihoods through land and agrarian reform. However, in doing so the government is enforcing large-scale production in the land reform projects with little regard for the beneficiaries’ background or capabilities, which are not suited to large-scale production. The article demonstrates how large-scale farming is negatively affecting land beneficiaries’ production by undermining their ability to produce the quality products (and adequate quantities) that satisfy the standards in the increasingly concentrated markets dominated by agribusiness.

Setting them up to fail: enforcement of the agribusiness model on land reform projects in South Africa

ABSTRACT Land reform in South Africa aims, among other things, to build ‘the economy by generating large-scale employment, increasing rural incomes and eliminating overcrowding’ (ANC 1994). While there is ‘near-consensus that land reform has been unsuccessful’ (Aliber and Cousins 2013), various factors have been raised as contributing to land reform’s failure to meet its goals. Among the factors negatively affecting livelihoods and income generation is the government’s enforcement of an agribusiness model promoting large-scale production for (export) markets. This article uses a case study to illustrate how the implementation of large-scale, and sometimes capital-intensive, production negatively affects the livelihoods of the beneficiaries. It challenges the perspectives that associate success, or even the viability, of land reform projects with the agribusiness model by demonstrating how difficult it is for the beneficiaries to sustain production autonomously.

Land reform, rural inequality and agrarian change: the case of Isidenge, Stutterheim, Eastern Cape

Property ownership and social relations on the land have changed significantly since 1994 in the Isidenge Valley, Stutterheim, Eastern Cape. In part this is the product of a partially-implemented land reform scheme and in part the result of African land purchase. In this article we chart these processes and their impact on rural inequality and agricultural production. We also offer some comments on the character and outcomes of land reform. In 1994 the Border Rural Committee, working with a well-organised SANCO branch, proposed a two phase land reform project: a village settlement for over 600 marginalised tenants where they could have secure rights to land, and the purchase of a further 900 ha of land for a smallholder farming scheme in this high rainfall area. The government implemented only the first phase. This gave former rural tenants security of tenure and better access to urban services in Stutterheim. About 10 per cent of those in the settlement who have livestock have benefitted from dismantling the barriers between them and adjacent state and private land. Beyond the settlement, black private purchasers owned about 55 per cent of the Isidenge valley in 2018 – a very significant increase. However, with a few exceptions, agricultural production has not been effectively maintained and some landowners find it difficult to enforce their property rights. There have been general benefits, as well as differential benefits, from the settlement scheme and the freedom to purchase. Increased security, rights and social capacity are all elements in the resolution of inequality and socio-economic changes in the valley have enhanced these processes for black South Africans.

“Reproducing the social”: contradictory interconnections between land, cattle production and household relations in the Besters Land Reform Project, South Africa

Land redistribution policy in South Africa emphasises commercial farming as the legitimate use of land. This production-oriented framework fails to take into account the intertwined but unstable relationship between the production of market value and social reproduction, and how this shapes social differentiation. Drawing on a case study of the Besters Land Reform Project in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, the paper shows that land and cattle are not simply moments in the production of beef but material and discursive resources in (re)making the social conditions of the household. Cattle are used in drawn-out ceremonies that occur in specific spaces and stitch together families and communities pulled apart by rising inequality, making land constitutive of identity and belonging as well as of capitalist value production. Until land reform policy recognises the multi-functionality of land and cattle, and the contradictory relationship between functions, agricultural production will be a limited indicator of “success” or “failure.”

The Role Of Mentors In Land Reform Projects Supported Through The Recapitalisation And Development Programme: Findings From Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, South Africa

Since the beginning of South Africa’s land reform programme in 1994, much concern has been expressed about the uneven performance of newly settled farmers, which has typically been explained by weak ‘post-settlement support’. In 2009, the government launched the Recapitalisation and Development Programme (RADP) in order to assist farms that have received little or no support, especially land reform farms. One salient aspect of the RADP is that it links recipient farmers with strategic partners or mentors, often as a condition of receiving financial support. Qualitative research was conducted in the form of seven in-depth case studies of RADP-supported land reform projects, together with interviews with four RADP mentors and three government officials. Some of the challenges in the farms before RADP funding was received included little or no income, high mortality rate of livestock, and lack of skills. The study revealed that the RADP mentorship remains a vital practice to be considered in capacitating land reform beneficiaries. It is recommended that funds should be made available for mentors to have an agreement of at least three to five years in a single project. Keywords: Land Reform, Mentors, Recapitalisation

Difficult roads leading to beautiful destinations? Articulating land Reform's contribution to rural livelihoods in the Limpopo Province, South Africa

A key objective of the land reforms in South Africa was for the process to lead to the emergence of a cohort of black small-scale commercial farmers who would realize substantive agricultural production levels through irrigation and actively contribute to the local and national agricultural value chains. The available evidence suggests that this objective has been difficult to attain and the contribution of land reform to livelihoods of the beneficiaries has been negligible in the Limpopo province. This study deployed qualitative research methodologies to gather both secondary and empirical data that enabled analysis of the extent to which the land reform program has contributed to the livelihoods of small-scale emerging farmers in the surroundings of Bela-Bela Municipal Area, Limpopo Province. The study found out that financial resources are a big challenge, with most of the farmers being unable to raise the capital needed to invest in the farming enterprise. In addition, most of the ‘emerging farmers’ do not have the know-how and experience needed to run a commercial farm. Overall, the study enabled us to conclude that the land reform projects have not only had limited impact on the livelihoods of the majority of the beneficiaries, instead, the reforms have left the country-side facing a real risk of increasing food insecurity. This suggests that a wide-ranging programme of land reform is a necessary but not sufficient condition for meaningful transformation of the livelihoods of the households involved. More groundwork still needs to be done by government and other development agencies to ensure availability of proper post-land transfer support systems for the emerging farmers.

How to understand, evaluate and influence efficient progress in South Africa’s land reform process: A typology from historical lessons from selected sub-Saharan African countries

Background: With reports of widespread failures in South Africa’s land reform programmes, the levels of policy uncertainty in the political rhetoric that influences land reform have been increasing. Since 1994 policy targets to transfer land to black farmers have not been met. Of the 2005 target to transfer about 25 million ha of commercial farmland to black farmers by 2014, less than 5 million ha. have been transferred for commercial use. Some studies report failure rates in resettlement projects of up to 90%. To account for the failures, revisions of policies and amendments to legislations have been proposed within a political environment that is becoming increasingly intolerant to slow progress in land transfers and to resettlement failures.Aim: Against this environment, this paper presents a typology for understanding and evaluating important elements of the land reform project in order to influence progress in the process.Setting: The study adopts a historical review of land reform processes in post-colonial Kenya and Zimbabwe in order to identify potential challenges and key lessons for South Africa.Methods: Hence, using institutional and historical analytical lenses in exploring different narratives, the paper reviews reported failures and successes in land reform policy cases from the selected countries. From an institutional framework, prevalent social institutions and key lessons from Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa, a typology for evaluating important elements of the land reform process in South Africa is developed and discussed. Additionally, a review of global data collected on average sizes of farms in different regions of the world is provided as evidence to support propositions of what would constitute efficient farmland size ranges for small to medium commercial farms in South Africa.Results and conclusion: A proposition is made on how to use the typology to guide policy and research interventions to reduce failures and promote successful cases in different areas of the land reform process in South Africa, and possibly other similar contexts.

Land reform in South Africa: an appraisal

ABSTRACTLand-related issues have taken centre stage in socio-political and economic discourse in post-apartheid South Africa. As in other societies, access to land is vital for social–cultural sustainability, improved livelihoods and economic development; hence, the sensitivity of the land reform projects initiated by successive governments. While the South African state has made strides in correcting the unequal ownership patterns inherited from the previous regime, the skewed pattern of land distribution persists, and conflict over land and poverty prevail. Stakeholders in the land reform project have different perspectives. While some advocate for accelerated ‘return’ of land to the original black owners, there are compelling reasons to question the unproductive utility of land that has already been transferred. This article interrogates government performance in the land restitution and redistribution project, assesses the utility of land re-allocated to new owners, and explores the convergence between land reform and persistent poverty. In so doing, it identifies many flaws in the land reform scheme.

Human rights in tension: guiding cadastral systems development in customary land rights contexts

Land reform in South Africa has failed to meet its objectives. The intended beneficiaries often do not have their land reform needs met. Failures may be attributed to multiple sources. We propose a conceptual framework to assist governments conducting land reform projects. It draws on aspects of human rights, good governance, and pro-poor policy. Existing frameworks are combined with these aspects to derive the conceptual framework. By using the framework, development projects in South Africa and similar contexts may become more Successful, Sustainable, and Significant. The paper holds interest for land tenure and cadastral systems researchers and developers.

Development by dispossession: the post-2000 development agenda and land rights in Lesotho

This paper questions the novelty of post-2000 development strategies, in particular the US’s Millennium Challenge Corporation and its ethos of ‘poverty reduction through economic growth.’ Using land as a lens, I explore recent eras of development assistance and ask if the Millennium-era has been appreciably different from pre-2000 development. The backdrop of my study is an MCC-sponsored land reform in Lesotho. I use data drawn from fieldwork in Lesotho to argue that the logics and outcomes of the Development industry’s land policies have remained largely the same. Despite the anti-poverty rhetoric, the residents of a peri-urban village near Maseru, Lesotho’s capital, are more likely to be dispossessed of their land than they were before the MCC’s land reform began. The reform provided Lesotho with economic growth, but no apparent poverty reduction. I argue that the MCC’s land reform project in Lesotho demonstrates the continued primacy of economic growth in post-2000 international development. There is a gulf between economic growth and poverty reduction that is not addressed by Development practitioners who claim that growth itself is sufficient to reduce poverty. In the case of Lesotho, I argue that the work of Development and dispossession are linked, amounting to ‘Development by dispossession.’