/ 6 September 2005

Land-reform problems plague Southern Africa

Since the advent of democracy a decade ago in South Africa, efforts have been made to give the country’s majority black population opportunities in the farming sector. During the colonial era and under apartheid, blacks were dispossessed of land — and often prevented from buying it.

Emerging black farmers face a host of problems, however, ranging from a lack of access to loans to insufficient training.

”The bank insists on security [collateral], which some farmers don’t have,” says Lobias Mosadi, deputy director of the implementation support unit at the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs.

The government has found itself obliged to step in.

”Now the bank gives a loan only after a farmer who has no security has received a grant from the government,” notes Mosadi.

It took 49-year-old William Mahamba six months, in 2003, to secure a R94 000 loan to purchase the 145ha farm he now owns. But, the wait appears to have been worth it.

”I started with seven cows. Now I’ve got 160 cattle,” Mahamba said during an interview in Mafikeng, the capital of South Africa’s North West province, recently. ”If you want to be a farmer, you must forget all about enjoyment. You must work very hard.”

Slow pace

The government’s aim after apartheid was to transfer 30% of white-owned agricultural land to blacks by 2015.

To date, however, just more than 3,1-million hectares have changed hands — a fraction of the total amount of white-owned land — with 1,2-million persons benefiting from the land-distribution scheme. This has sparked fears that officials will have difficulty in meeting their target.

The situation in the North West reflects the slow pace of land transfer. Provincial authorities want to distribute two million hectares of land by 2014 — but by March this year had only transferred 73 155ha.

”It’s not easy to address land issues in a country like South Africa which is still emerging from its past,” Nick Seobi, who works for the department of agriculture in the North West, told journalists who were visiting the region.

Some claim that white farmers have inflated the price of their land to profit unfairly from the willing-seller, willing-buyer system that has been used for land transfer to date.

”The pace of reform has been negatively influenced by the willing-buyer, willing-seller approach,” said Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka while addressing a national land summit held in South Africa’s financial capital, Johannesburg, earlier this year.

However, Hans van der Merwe, head of AgriSA — a union mostly composed of white commercial farmers — warned against meddling with the system.

”Land owners expect a market price, determined by the willing-buyer, willing-seller concept,” he told the meeting.

Regional issue

Land is an emotive issue throughout Southern Africa. In Zimbabwe, a controversial round of farm seizures that began in 2000 has dealt a blow to the country’s economy — and contributed to food shortages that are affecting about three million of Zimbabwe’s 13-million citizens.

The farm occupations were launched by veterans of the country’s 1970s liberation struggle and government militants, ostensibly to correct racial imbalances in land ownership that were inherited from the colonial era. By 2000, most of Zimbabwe’s prime agricultural land was still owned by about 4 500 white farmers.

Critics of the Harare administration have claimed that the invasions were backed by the government in a bid to gain support ahead of parliamentary elections in 2000 — the first poll in which the ruling Zanu-PF faced a credible threat from the opposition.

In Namibia, the government has embarked on compulsory purchases of white-owned farms in order to speed up its land-distribution efforts (the first such sale was completed last week). About 4 000 white farmers are said to own just less than half of the country’s best farmland.

Previously, the policy of willing seller, willing buyer was also observed in Namibia. But with only 37 000 black citizens having been resettled since independence in 1990, officials were coming under criticism for pursuing reform too slowly. Reports indicate that about 240 000 persons are to be resettled during the next five years.

Decentralisation

While debate about how best to continue with land-distribution initiatives in South Africa continues, efforts to decentralise the distribution process appear to have helped.

”We now run the land-reform programme from the province: the bulk of decisions are taken from the provinces, so as not to stifle the programme. Only a few cases are referred to the national government,” said Seobi.

Ultimately, the government aims to have many more success stories such as that of 75-year-old Selebaleng Ratsikane in hand.

A retired nurse, Ratsikane was the 2004 female farmer of the year in the North West in the category of top producer for informal markets. At national level, Ratsikane made it to the top four in the same category; she netted about R48 000 in prize money from both competitions.

”I used the money to dig boreholes. Now I have enough water on my farm,” she says, smiling.

Ratsikane is still in need of funds, but that isn’t stopping her from planning ahead.

”I want to start exporting vegetables, maize and sunflowers overseas next year. I also want to export goats to Australia,” she says. — IPS