PALLO JORDAN: What does addressing the land question in SA actually involve?

Since the adoption of a resolution by ANC’s elective conference in December 2017, to change the constitutional provision requiring equitable compensation for land expropriated by the state, the dialogue on the specific constitutional clause as well as on land distribution and ownership in this country appears trapped between the extremes of hyperbole and double talk. The issue has generated much heat, which has shed very little light on what addressing the land question in SA actually involves. Historically, the “land question” has probably been the most intractable issue that revolutionary governments have wrestled with during the 20th century. Casting one’s mind back we can recall the Soviet struggle against the kulaks; the establishment and the dismantling of the People’s Communes in China, which entailed bitter struggles including terrible violence. With the possible exception of Cuba, revolutionary governments that have pursued radical land reform have oscillated between “lefti...