SA Graan Januarie 2017

34 / 44

Januarie 2017
32
RELEVANT
A fresh approach to land reform
During a debate at this year’s Agri SA congress a panel
discussion on the future of land reform agreed that
when it comes to successful land reform, intense negotia-
tions and compromises are necessary. Properly managed
land reform can create assets for the poor, stabilise relationships
and promote development. On the other hand, if it is poorly man-
aged, it destroys assets, impoverishes communities and weakens
the economy.
South Africa currently faces a predicament as the process of land
reform has advanced too slowly for post freedom expectations
and much of the land that has been transferred has become eco-
nomically inactive.
A solution to the problem
Vumelana was established in 2012 as a non-profit organisation,
to help communities and investors come to fair agreement about
the development of community-controlled land. The project is
led by a board of prominent South Africans with Dr Johan van Zyl
(former Group CEO of Sanlam) as chairman of the board. Their aim
is to demonstrate the value of community private partnerships as a
contribution to successful land reform. The process involves evalu-
ating the land and then packaging it as a commercial proposition
that goes out on tender.
This initiative to match land reform beneficiary communities with
private investors has taken on 40 projects representing vast areas
of land restored to communities throughout the country. A signifi-
cant part of the funding available for the acquisition of land is used
to recapitalise projects that have failed, like the disastrous
Mamahlola land claim in the Limpopo Province. Read more about
the Vumelana Advisory Fund at
Land reform’s future
Conflicting views cause South Africans to have questions about
land reform. What is the future of land reform in South Africa?
Can the process be accelerated? Will it produce equitable out-
comes? Whose interests will be served? What will be the impact on
food security?
To initiate an open and practical search for strategic responses to
the future of land reform, four fictional scenarios were developed
and produced over a twelve-month period by a heterogeneous
scenario team.
The Vumelana Advisory Fund convened and supported this
project. Reos Partners, a company that has been designing and
facilitating systemic change projects for more than 20 years, man-
aged the process. 40 people who approach land reform from
widely differing perspectives took part in the development thereof:
Policy-makers and administrators, traditional leaders, communal
property institution leaders, activists, business people, academics
and consultants.
This project was developed through discussion and debate by
the team whose discussions took into account the views of over
100 people about land reform. It contains unresolved dilemmas
that invite deeper debate and discussion. In each scenario, stake-
holder action influences the character of land reform and shapes
who ‘wins’ and ‘loses’ in the land reform stakes. A short video clip of
each scenario can be viewed at
Scenario 1: Connection and capture
This first story is about using land as power – the land reform pro-
gramme opens the way for politically connected interest groups
to benefit at the expense of ordinary people. In this scenario the
winners are those who hold power and broker deals with the losers
being ordinary people outside the networks of patronage. This story
shows that rural households will have little residence security and
women will remain particularly disadvantaged.
By 2030, with government being unable (or unwilling) to hold tra-
ditional leaders, communal property institutions and redistribu-
tion beneficiaries to account, it will remain easy for well-connected
business people and politicians to capture land reform for their
own purposes.
Scenario 2: Market power and
concentration
The second story is about land as a productive asset with land
reform changing the racial profile of farming, without broadening
ownership to small farmers and local communities. In this scenario
the government encourages market-based land transfers through
community-private partnerships.
By 2030 black South Africans could own about half of the land in
the commercial farming sector. Although the structure of agricul-
ture will not have changed, the number of commercial farms would
have decreased from 40 000 in 2016 to 20 000.
LOUISE KUNZ, SA Graan/Grain contributor