Navigating an uncertain regulatory environment

While various regulations and policy developments might be causing uncertainty in the agriculture sector, farmers should remember that previous radical attempts at land reform failed to materialise, or had minimal impact.

- Glenneis Kriel

This was the message from Annelize Crosby, head of legal intelligence at Agbiz, who spoke to farmers at the Sandveld Potato Growers' Organisation's annual general meeting held recently in Lamberts Bay, Western Cape.

Examples of these 'radical attempts' ranged from resolutions to better protect the rights of illegal occupants, and the 'one farmer, one farm' campaign that emerged from the 2005 Land Summit at Nasrec, Soweto, to ceilings on land ownership and a ban on foreign land ownership, as proposed in the Land Reform Green Paper, which was not written into a white paper.