3 - Land reform and state-building in democratic South Africa

Land reform is one of the most contentious policies in former settler colonies in southern Africa, and South Africa is no exception in this regard. Given that land reform policy in post-independence/post-apartheid period has an inherently redistributive element, an emotive nature and a racial dimension, it is no surprise that there seems to be no consensus among citizens in South Africa about how it should be implemented and what results should be achieved. Reflecting on this lack of consensus on policy goals, the focus of the land redistribution programme has changed several times since its inception three decades ago. This was also because of shifts in macro-economic policy and in the land reform policy-making processes. The land redistribution programme became a supply-driven policy rather than demand-driven, it changed to catering for the needs of more production-oriented farmers than those of the poor and landless, and the government’s involvement in selecting ‘beneficiaries’ of the programme increased. Nonetheless, the African National Congress (ANC) did not go as far as embracing the idea of nationalisation of land, proposed by the Economic Freedom Fighters, a splinter opposition party from the ANC, known for its radical policy stances. This paper traces the changes in post-apartheid land reform policy, examining the reasons why each shift occurred, and explores what such a shift tells us about the state-building process led by the ANC in democratic South Africa.