Debunking the myths about land reform in SA

Johann Kirsten, director of Stellenbosch University’s Bureau for Economic Research, and Wandile Sihlobo, senior fellow in its Department of Agricultural Economics, discuss the facts and fallacies of land reform.

- Wandile Sihlobo

South Africa’s land reform policy remains highly contested. But, in our view, a number of persistent myths about farmland statistics and the structure of commercial agriculture skew debates. This makes it difficult to reach some common understanding about the realities of land and agriculture in the country.

In 1994, when South Africa became a democracy, white farmers owned 77,58 million hectares of farmland out of the total surface area of 122 million hectares. The new government set a target of redistributing 30% of this within five years. This target date has been moved several times and is now 2030. According to popular belief, between 8% and 10% has been redistributed so far. But this is incorrect as it omits a number of key statistics.

Only 17% to 20% of the 77,58 million hectares are suitable for field crop, irrigation and horticultural production. More than 55% of farmland is only ideal for extensive grazing (land that is poor and dry but animals can roam widely, the Karoo being an example), and another 20% for intensive pastures and animal production (the KwaZuluNatal Midlands being an example that receives good rains and has good pastures for grazing).

The potential of farmland being used to create full-time, sustainable livelihoods is thus limited. This suggests that a careful, measured approach needs to be adopted in redistribution efforts.

These realities are the basis for our arguments against five standard myths about agriculture and land in South Africa. That’s not to say that there isn’t a great deal still to be done. But failure to recognise the gains means that policies can’t be developed based on what’s been achieved so far.