The Reinvention of Land Reform in South Africa - Ruth Hall
Post on 22-Jan-2018
144 Views
Preview:
Transcript
The Reinvention of Land Reform in South Africa: State, Market and CitizensRuth Hall, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS)
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
STEPS, IDS - Wednesday 10 May 2017
‘Redistributiveness’
• Fox (1993): land reform as a zero-sum game.
• Borras (2007) argues that for land reform to be redistributive, the two minimum requirements are:
1. ‘compensation to landlords at below market price’
2. ‘payment by peasants and workers at below actual acquisition cost’
• I will show how the first condition doesn’t pertain in SA, and how the second has been eroded over time.
• ‘Apparent-but-not-real’ redistribution.
What does redistribution look like in a de-agrarianised society?
What land, to be shared by whom, how, and with
what outcomes?
• Binswanger argued that if market
distortions were removed and there
were perfect competition, then small
farmers would be more efficient than
large farmers.
Smallholder settlement (but without small farms): 1995-1999
Inversion of the class agenda:
from means test to a sliding scale
The new accumulatorsEmerging commercial farmers: 2000-2010
State leasehold, conditional tenure& strategic partnerships: 2011-2017
Policy changes over time
Acquisition
Tenure
Classagenda
Landuse
SLAG(1995-1999)
Market-based
purchase
Transferoftitle Means-tested(ie.
pro-poor)
Multiple
livelihoods
LRAD
(2000-2010)
Market-basedpurchase
Transferoftitle Notmeans-tested(unclear)
Agricultureonly
PLAS
(2011-now)
Market-basedpurchase
Notransferoftitle
Notmeans-tested(unclear)
Agricultureonly
Pace
Source: various, including DRDLR 2016: 4
0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
19
94
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
Jan
-Mar
20
00
20
00
/01
20
01
/02
20
02
/03
20
03
/04
20
04
/05
20
05
/06
20
06
/07
20
07
/08
20
08
/09
20
09
/10
20
10
/11
20
11
/12
20
12
/13
20
13
/14
20
14
/15
20
15
/16
20
16
/17
Hectares
Hectares redistributed by year, nationally (1994-2016)
Redistribution by programme
Source: various, including DRDLR 2016: 4
Hectares acquired and redistributed, by province, 1994-2016
The stymied middle class
SpioenkopMeyers Family Trust
Abandoned farm workers
Yarrow FarmSiyaphuhlisa Cooperative
Agribusiness cashing in
Sunland FarmsStrategic partner: Bono Farm Management
Sunland Empowerment Trust
Black farming households
Trends in black household involvement in agriculture, by ‘main reason’ according to the Labour Force Survey
Source: Stats SA, Labour Force Survey, 2001-2007
Conclusions
• Not only the pace but also the redistributiveness of land reform has diminished over time.
• Critics of market-based land reform argued that state-led initiatives would be more pro-poor.
• The SA case shows that this is not necessarily the case: instead, more state intervention has led to state control and elite capture.
A fourth policy cycle? New proposed policies & laws
1. The One Household One Hectare Policy
2. The ‘50/50 Policy’: Strengthening the Relative Rights of
People Who Work the Land
3. Expropriation Bill
4. Communal Property Associations Amendment Bill
5. Regulation of Agricultural Land Holdings Bill
6. The Preservation and Development of Agricultural
Landholdings Bill
top related