What is the issue?
- South Africa’s land redistribution issue has gained focus with a recent tweet of the U.S. President.
- It is imperative at this juncture to understand this crucial issue which is worsening South Africa’s inequality.
What is the recent happening?
- U.S. President recently contended that white farmers are being killed on a large scale in South Africa, and farms and lands are being expropriated.
- This has led to renewed racial tensions within and outside South Africa.
- In response, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa made it clear that South Africa was a profoundly unequal society.
- He pledged to address this inequality resulting from land dispossession during the colonial and Apartheid eras.
What is the land redistribution issue?
- The inequality of land distribution in South Africa is rooted in the colonial 1913 Natives Land Act.
- The Act reserved almost 93% of the land for the white minority in South Africa.
- It thus legalized the historical dispossession of the African population.
- The 1936 Native Trust and Land Act slightly decreased that share to 87%.
- Nevertheless, the vast inequality of land ownership persists even today.
What after democracy?
- The constitution adopted in 1994 made possible the transition from apartheid to democracy.
- It was specified that land should be restituted to those dispossessed during the colonial and Apartheid eras.
- It stipulates that there should be just and equitable compensation for expropriated land.
- This inspired the “willing-seller, willing-buyer” land redistribution policy of previous governments.
- Under such a market-based approach, the government would purchase and redistribute land to the dispossessed people.
- However, progress has been slow for many reasons.
- These include property owners' refusal to sell, exorbitant prices, and inadequate dispute resolution mechanisms.
- The slow pace of the implementation led to doubts on the effectiveness and constitutionality of the policy.
What is the current scenario?
- Growth - The annual growth rate of the country is poor and unemployment hovers around 25%.
- South Africa has one of the highest levels of inequality in the world.
- Land - 72% of farms and agricultural holdings are owned by whites.
- But notably the whites make up only 8.2% of the population.
- Black South Africans comprise around 80% of the population, but own just 4% of the land.
- Clearly, land ownership patterns remain skewed against the black majority.
- But official statistics on land holdings among racial groups are contested on their details.
Why is land distribution crucial?
- The World Bank, in its recent study, noted that inequality in South Africa was exacerbated by the
- limited titling of property
- limited access to finance
- weak property rights
- limited land valorization
- lack of sustainable investment, etc
- WB has rated unequal distribution and access to land as South Africa’s second greatest obstacle to reducing poverty, after skill deficits.
- A well-managed system of land distribution is thus crucial to redressing the country’s economic inequality.
- Productive land use among the poor is inevitable to curb rising poverty levels.
- It is also essential to reversing the high unemployment and inequality conditions.
- The government is thus considering certain land policy reforms.
What are the recent proposals?
- The parliament has passed a bill in 2016 under the presidency of Jacob Zuma.
- It was aimed at ending the “willing-buyer, willing-seller” approach to land reform.
- It enabled the government to pay at adjudicator value and expropriate land for the public interest.
- In 2017, a resolution to redistribute land without compensation was backed by the parliament.
- The proposals target unutilised land, informal settlements, and abandoned inner-city buildings.
- The implications of these changes for the mining sector could be significant.
What is the way forward?
- Trump’s tweets incorrectly suggest that land distribution process is disorderly and unlawful.
- But certainly, land reform in South Africa is an emotive, complex, and important issue.
- The competing and conflicting interests have to be balanced for the greater good.
Source: The Hindu, Brookings