AGRICULTURE
Land policies try to solve imaginary issues at expense of real problems
Many policy analysts and academics argue that land reform has been a very slow process in SA. The general disenchantment is reflected in emerging proposals for land reform that include pilots on the Strengthening the Relative Rights of People Working the Land (50/50) policy and gazetting the Regulation of Agricultural Landholdings Bill — in an effort to "hasten" the process. But the pace of land reform has been fair and not as slow as experts and policy makers claim, especially if progress is measured and defined by how much land has been transferred from white to black ownership. However, the operational success of farms granted under various land-reform programmes is the key concern — with service delivery and co-ordination between government departments a key factor in explaining a number of failures. Official statistics on land restitution and land redistribution programmes presented by Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti in Parliament in 2017 show: •Total ...
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