Long overdue reform needed to transform rural economy in SA

Since the late 19th century, African people in South Africa have employed various strategies to reclaim the land they lost during the colonial period.

- Ramabina Mahapa

What started at the time with communities purchasing land, mostly by the imposition of community-wide levies, led to individuals forming themselves into groups to buy land. The desire for tenure security and the scarcity of land in the native reserves drove African communities and individuals' purchase of land.

The scale of the land purchases was meaningful. In his book Our Land, Our Life, Our Future, Harvey Feinberg estimated that between 1905 and 19 June 1913, Africans in the Transvaal bought about 430 farms.

Between 1913 and 1936, the then governor-general approved 3,295 purchases of farms and plots by Africans throughout the country. Of these transactions, about 45% were in the Transvaal. Besides certain parts of Natal, the drive for land acquisition in the Transvaal was unparalleled anywhere else in South Africa.