A critical appraisal of South Africa's market-based land reform policy

Chapter 1: Introduction
The land question remains one of the key challenges for post-apartheid
South Africa. The history of colonisation and apartheid, and the
dispossession of black people from the land that are central to this
history, are well documented (Thompson 1995; Koch et al. 2001;
Sparks 1991; Greenberg 2003).
In 1996 less than 1% of the population
owned and controlled over 80% 1 of
farm land. 2 This 1% was part of the
10.9% of the population classified as white
(Stats SA 2000). Meanwhile, the 76.7% of
the population that is classified as African
had access to less than 15% of agricultural
land, and even that access was without
clear ownership or legally-recognised
rights. An estimated 5.3 million black
South Africans lived with almost no tenure
security on commercial farms owned by
white farmers (Wildschut & Hulbert 1998).
The legacy of apartheid was not just the
inequality in access to resources such as
land, but a faltering economy that by 1994
had been through two years of negative
growth and left the majority of the
population in poverty (Sparks 2003).
Policy makers pre- and post-1994 took an
interest in arguments that land reform
could play a significant role in boosting
economic growth and alleviating poverty.
World Bank and other advisors in South
Africa in the early nineties argued for a
far-reaching land reform programme on
these grounds (Greenberg 2003).
Arguments that increased productivity and
job creation could result from reducing
farm sizes were supported by a number of
local and international scholars (Van Zyl et
al. 1996).
The need for land reforms to address
the legacy of the past was clearly identified
in the new South African Constitution (Act
108 of 1996, Section 25). The Reconstruction
and Development Programme (RDP)
identified land reform as a key component
of its programmes of ‘meeting basic needs’
and ‘building the economy’ (ANC 1994).
The White Paper on South African Land
Policy included in its strategic goals the
promotion of economic growth and
poverty reduction through land reform
(DLA 1997).
Over the last decade land reform
policies around the world have, with a few
exceptions such as the case of Zimbabwe,
revolved around variations of marketbased
land reform. This trend fits with
broader shifts in global economic policies,
following the end of the Cold War, that
have seen a reduced role for the state,
liberalisation of markets and privatisation
of state enterprises and assets (Williams
1996; Greenberg 2003). It is within this
context that the first democratically elected
government in South Africa followed
international trends and World Bank
advice by adopting a market-based approach
to land reform (Williams 1996).
A range of civil society organisations,
including social movements, NGOs and
trade unions, have raised strong criticisms
of market-based land reforms around the
world. They have argued that this model
will not benefit small producers and the
rural poor, but serve to tighten the control
of powerful land owners and concentrate
land in the hands of those with financial
and political power (El-Gonemy 1999:125;
Ghimire 1999:23; Greenberg 2003:22).
The South African land reform
programme, developed by the African
1