[Okonkwo]

Hurry up
Dec 3rd 2009 | JOHANNESBURG
From The Economist print edition

The government’s plan for blacks to own more land is flagging

WITH the fine aim of redressing the racially skewed pattern of land ownership that has existed since whites conquered South Africa hundreds of years ago, the government’s land-reform programme is a shambles. Launched in 1994, the plan was to redistribute 30% of white-owned farmland to poor blacks. So far, barely 5% has been handed over. The government has run out of money. Once-productive land lies fallow. The deadline of 2014 for completing the reform has been postponed; 2025 has been mooted but even that may be too ambitious. The estimated extra cost is 71 billion rand ($9.4 billion) on top of 6 billion already disbursed.

Unlike Zimbabwe, where over the past decade white-owned farms have been seized by President Robert Mugabe’s government without compensation, South Africa’s post-apartheid governments have stuck to the principle of “willing seller, willing buyer” at the market price. But, as President Jacob Zuma has admitted, that model is not working, partly because of its huge cost. The government talks ominously of other “practical strategies” to acquire land “more quickly and inexpensively”, sending shudders through South Africa’s 40,000 white farmers.

When apartheid ended 15 years ago, 87% of commercial farmland was owned by whites and 13% by blacks—the exact reverse of their proportion of the population. (This excludes the subsistence farms where 4m black families eke out a living.) The 30% target, adopted in 1994 by South Africa’s first democratically elected government, meant redistributing 26m hectares (64m acres) of white-owned land with a deadline of five years. So far, less than 3m hectares have been transferred.

Under a separate land-restitution programme to compensate victims of forced removals over the past century, a further 2.5m hectares have been returned to their dispossessed black owners. If this is included in the 30% target, over 5m hectares, nearly a fifth of white-owned land due for redistribution, are now in black hands. The government admits that about half the farms taken over by blacks have failed, usually because of a lack of money or skill. Some put the failure rate at 70%. Since 2007 the country has been a net importer of food, after decades of self-sufficiency.

Meanwhile, white farmers with outstanding claims on their land do not know whether to continue investing in their properties. Some have gone bust while waiting for government payment. Others have abandoned their farms. Spurred by attacks on white-owned land, many are thinking of farming elsewhere on the continent. Several African governments, eager to boost their own farming output, have been signing deals with South African farmers. Agri SA, the white farmers’ biggest union, says 600-800 of its members are already operating in other African countries.

The murder rate on South African farms is striking. Since 1991, 1,650 people, most of them white farmers and their families, have been killed in more than 10,000 attacks. According to a study in 2003, the main motive in 89% of the murders was robbery. A political or racial motive was found in only 2% of the cases, though Pieter Mulder, the deputy agriculture minister, who heads a right-wing party, Freedom Front Plus, is unconvinced.

Despite the government’s flagging land-reform plan, there seems little chance it will resort to large-scale expropriation at below-market prices. That would prompt long legal battles, making the whole process even slower and costlier. Besides, the recession-burdened government faces more pressing demands, such as the provision of basic services to the country’s increasingly turbulent poor black townships. Mr Zuma still cites land reform as one of his five top priorities. But it no longer has the same urgency.

Copyright © 2009 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.

This is quite a controversial policy. Unfortunately, this needs to be done, perhaps in a different way. What do you think?

[Potemkin]

If South Africa had a revolutionary government, this would not be an issue. Unfortunately, the 'historic compromise' of 1994 has tied their hands.

[Kman]

Why are the black south africans so racist? they shouldnt care who owns the farms as long as they are run efficiently.

[Muslim]

Since whites have the experience and blacks have the power, I suggest that blacks should enslave whites and force them to do the lands for their own benefit.

On a more serious note, land ownership has been always a controversial issue. Unlike other properties, it is hard to claim ownership over land or to determine whether or not it is rightful to take parts of it from some people.

[Dr House]

This is quite a controversial policy. Unfortunately, this needs to be done, perhaps in a different way. What do you think?

If the land is to be restored to black farmers, then the government needs to make extremely sure the black farmers in question are actually capable of maintaining the land in question. As it's being done now, South Africa is in serious danger of going the way of Zimbabwe or Bolivia. Ultimately monetary reparations for lost land, paid out of a land value tax, would be the best solution however.

Why are the black south africans so racist?

For the same reason Afrikaners are. They're human.

they shouldnt care who owns the farms as long as they are run efficiently.

Thousands of acres of farmland were forcibly redistributed from blacks to whites during Apartheid. Blacks are taking that land back now that they're in power.

[Kaspar]

Why are the black south africans so racist? they shouldnt care who owns the farms as long as they are run efficiently.

Well... there was a period of government-sponsored white empowerment in South Africa, called Apartheid, so now black people are angry that they are not as wealthy as white people.

When somebody hijacks your car at gunpoint, do you feel that that person has a right to your car because he is more powerful than you? If you had the option to take him to court, would you not do so because as a more powerful person at the time, he had a right to take your car?

[Le Rouge]

Land reform is a quagmire. African post-colonial governments made large mistakes, and continue to make large mistakes, with land reform policies. Whereas breaking up the power of white farmers was / is necessary, this doesn't automatically mean wholesale expropriation or land redistribution is the answer. By parceling up large estates, post-colonial governments severely reduced the productivity of these farms. It would have been a much better policy to seize all estates larger than 2000 hectares and organize them into state-owned farms that employ wage-labor. If such a policy had been pursued, capital investments into state-owned farms and improved physical and social capital in traditional farming networks would have led (hypothetically) to greater food security, economic productivity, and a source of non-tax income for the state.

[Dr House]

Unless of course the state botched production in said farms...

[H8w0w8H]

I have to agree with Kasper on this
its a creepy situation that needs to be resolved

one thing is for sure is that the current plans for agrarian justice are fundamentally flawed
The statistics quoted in the article are actually optimistic compared to the figures that people involved in the organization of the process are telling me
just talking about the corruption that has been discovered in the land bank would require another thread in its own right

The problem is not just that this program is fundamentally flawed
its that the entire South African economy is

its difficult to suggest solutions to this one problem, as an economy is the sum of multiple parts
land reform can't be successful in its own right, as any radical change implemented here needs to be balanced in other sectors of the economy

The ANC are blinded by ideology
the logic seems to be that the strategy of the National party made a certain group of people rich
therefore implementing the same economic strategies can be used to reverse the differences

it can't

the state socialist economic policy of the National Party is incompatible with democracy
but the ANC has essentially maintained the economic system of the National party

its time for a non-ideological radical reform of the economy that empowers people not government bureaucracy

[Verv]

The goal of essentially having less economic disparity is admirable.

I agree with Kaspar that there needs to be programs to provide that -- and what they are doing right now is the best that they can hope for with willing seller, willing buyer policy.. which essentially amounts to how it would normally be.

Rather, the solution will be emphasizing education for black youths and prompting a desire for them to indeed take over these farms.

[Dave]

South Africa's current program is largely useless in facilitating the goal of land and wealth redistribution from the white to the black population. In the short term the government will proceed with a series of half-measures, while the low-level and unofficial ethnic cleansing murder campaign continues to have moderate success.

Ultimately blacks will boil over with frustration at the alleged injustice of not owning the land in the country they now rule, and this will lead to radicalization. At that point in time they will seize the land, whether the government cooperates or not. The remaining white population of South Africa needs to prepare for this day by arming and training itself.

Were my sympathies with the black population of South Africa, which they most certainly are not, I would propose expropriation of the white farmers. The land would be titled to blacks, but the contracts would include covenants in which the land would be leased by the existing white farmers with the lease paid to the new black owners. This would achieve the goal of land reform while insuring that profitable agricultural production continued. If whites refused to play ball, a clause would come into play in which the lease would be broken and taken up by major Western agribusiness firms.

Well... there was a period of government-sponsored white empowerment in South Africa, called Apartheid, so now black people are angry that they are not as wealthy as white people.

When somebody hijacks your car at gunpoint, do you feel that that person has a right to your car because he is more powerful than you? If you had the option to take him to court, would you not do so because as a more powerful person at the time, he had a right to take your car?

Fallacy of composition. Collective entities are not the sum of their individual parts (in fact they are more than the sum) and are not necessarily bound by the same moral rules that restrict individual behavior, particularly within social groups. This is why taxation is not considered theft but robbery is.

the state socialist economic policy of the National Party is incompatible with democracy
but the ANC has essentially maintained the economic system of the National party

The National Party's postwar economic model was based on import substitution industrialization (ISI), somewhat similar to what was pursued in Latin America and Turkey until the 1970s. The ANC has dismantled the ISI model and adopted "normal" neoliberal policies.

South Africa, being multiracial and multicultural, should not be a democracy either.

[Alchemy]

In the short term the government will proceed with a series of half-measures, while the low-level and unofficial ethnic cleansing murder campaign continues to have moderate success.

God lord! Please elaborate on this statement.

[Dave]

God lord! Please elaborate on this statement.

The half-measures or the ethnic cleansing? Half-measures would include additional appropriations for land purchases and likely some sort of future subsidy program for black buyers of agricultural land. The ethnic cleansing campaign, which has nothing to do with the government, would be the high rate of murder and torture committed against white farmers.

[Alchemy]

The ethnic cleansing campaign, which has nothing to do with the government, would be the high rate of murder and torture committed against white farmers.

Could you then kindly explain why Human Rights Watch criticised the South African government for placing too much emphasis on protecting farmers, at the expense of protecting farm workers from abuse by farm owners? We all know how the ex pat propoganda media machine love giving disproportionately high media and political focus to farm attacks as South Africans. What I dont understand however is how you can come to the conclusion that farm workers do not suffer the same fate?

SA farmer 'fed worker to lions'

The human remains were found at a white lion breeding project
A South African farmer and three others have been charged with murder, accused of feeding an ex-worker to lions.
The four were arrested on Monday after police found a human skull and pieces of a leg in a lion enclosure.

Witnesses told police that Nelson Shisane, 38, was assaulted, tied up and driven to a lion breeding project, where he was thrown over the fence.

Mr Shisane, who had been sacked last year, had apparently returned to the farm, to collect his belongings.

He was reported missing by his family on 8 February.

Mark Crossley, 35, and three of his black employees were refused bail at the Phalaborwa magistrates court, some 350km north-east of Johannesburg.

Discuss....

[Dave]

Could you then kindly explain why Human Rights Watch criticised the South African government for placing too much emphasis on protecting farmers, at the expense of protecting farm workers from abuse by farm owners? We all know how the ex pat propoganda media machine love giving disproportionately high media and political focus to farm attacks as South Africans. What I dont understand however is how you can come to the conclusion that farm workers do not suffer the same fate?

I did not come to this conclusion. Human Rights Watch for the record is a quasi-governmental American propaganda outlet.

[Alchemy]

I did not come to this conclusion. Human Rights Watch for the record is a quasi-governmental American propaganda outlet.

Alrighty then. So Human Rights Watch's contribution to the subject is nothing more than a "quasi-governmental American propaganda outlet" as opposed to your credible unbiased first hand account of the South African situation at ground level right?

[Dave]

Alrighty then. So Human Rights Watch's contribution to the subject is nothing more than a "quasi-governmental American propaganda outlet" as opposed to your credible unbiased first hand account of the South African situation at ground level right?

HRW is a tainted source just as Freedom House is. I do not have the direct evidence to evaluate the validity of their claims. The farm workers may or may not be suffering terribly. I have never investigated that nor I have made any claims on the matter.

[Alchemy]

HRW is a tainted source just as Freedom House is. I do not have the direct evidence to evaluate the validity of their claims.

Yet you have evidence to support your rubbish? By reffering to farm attacks as ethnic cleansing against white farmers you are implying that whites in South Africa carry the monopoly in terms of murder and attacks against them when this is simply not the case.

South African farm workers 'at risk'

Both black and white farm-dwellers experience violence

South Africa's police and courts have been accused of paying more attention to violence against white farm-owners than black farm-workers.
Earlier this month, a farmers' organisation said that 1,000 white farmers had been killed in the past decade and demanded more action from the authorities.

Attacks against farm owners have got most of the attention, but attacks against other farm residents are a much bigger problem

Human Rights Watch
In a new report the New York-based Human Rights Watch recognises the plight of the white farmers but claims that black rural residents are at even more risk of violence.
Bronwen Manby of the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch said: "Farm-workers and other rural dwellers are more vulnerable to violence, including from their employers, and less likely to get help from the police and courts."

Lack of vigour

The report, "Unequal Protection: The State Response to Violent Crime on South African Farms" accuses police, army units and private security agencies and farm-owners of beating killing and raping farm-workers.

It was released in advance of the United Nations World Conference against Racism which opens in Durban next week.

Private security firm have been used to evict squatters

Seven years after black majority rule came to South Africa, Human Rights Watch said, "The criminal justice system fails to ensure that police and court officials investigate, prosecute and punish murder, rape and other serious crimes against black South Africans with the same vigour as when these crimes are committed against whites."

Human Rights Watch says that this is even true of recently promoted black police officers.

Control security companies

The organisation calls on the government to stop soldiers from carrying out police duties and also to bring private security companies under control.

Whites own the majority of South Africa's farm-land, mostly sprawling estates with small areas set aside as housing for hundreds of black farm-workers.

Critics say the farms contain feudal relationships similar to those of the European Middle Ages.

In July, South African police swiftly moved to evict black squatters who had moved onto land in Zimbabwe-style invasions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1504658.stm

[Dave]

Yet you have evidence to support your rubbish?

Yes.

[Yes ... and? Either you edit the post to contain more information or it will be deleted. One-liners will not be tolerated.]

[Alchemy]

Then by all means, produce it.