TRANSFORMATION
Evidence-based approach to land redistribution is not a numbers game
Beneficiaries of reform are only leaseholders, and holdings by trusts, companies and the state must be included, writes Terence Corrigan
In theory, SA is committed to an evidence-based approach to policy-making. And for good reason — the National Development Plan of some years ago argued that this was a necessary methodology to tackle problems as they existed (rather than as they were presumed to exist) and to ensure meaningful course correction for the future. The goal was to shift from "short-term symptom-based policies to longer-term policies based on sound evidence and reason". For decades a lack of evidence has been a central hindrance to land policy. As the government contemplates the introduction of a regime of expropriation without compensation, and quite possibly other changes to the nature of property rights in SA, it is more important now than ever that policy is undergirded by an appropriate evidentiary base. It is therefore profoundly distressing to see that, just as attempts to place such evidence on the table are being made, the evidence we have is being misrepresented. A statement issued on behalf of ...
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