Ben Cousins

When South Africa eventually emerges from the fog of the Covid-19 crisis, will policy makers be ready to grasp the nettle of farm scale, and promote the large-scale redistribution of land to small-scale producers?

South Africa's land reform programme will fail if it continues to neglect smallholder farming

South Africa's land policy is flailing around in the dark, with the haziest of understandings of how well or how badly land reform is doing

There is very little clarity as to who owns what land in South Africa. A lack of reliable data and statistics doesn't help.

It's good election rhetoric but the main problems dogging farm redistribution are not being addressed, say Ben Cousins and Ruth Hall.

Can we create one million new jobs in agriculture as envisaged by the National Development Plan (NDP)? If so, how?

As the ANC meets to discuss its most important policies, land remains one of the hottest issues, writes Ben Cousins.

“Total failure” is an inaccurate way to describe Zimbabwe's farming sector, despite its problems following land reform.

Most media coverage of Zimbabwe unthinkingly repeats and reinforces a Western and neoliberal perception of the history and causes of that country's political and economic crisis. The dominant view is that "socialism" explains Zimbabwe's economic collapse and political repression.

Lulu Xingwana, the new Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, faces enormous challenges. Policies to sustain a productive agricultural sector must contend with a global trade regime that is profoundly unequal and privileges the protected producers of the North. There has been little progress in levelling this playing field.

''The more that policy changes in South Africa, the more it is the same.'' These words are from Govan Mbeki's seminal book on rural resistance, The Peasants' Revolt. In the post-apartheid era white domination and its crippling legacies are under attack from progressive government policies, and Mbeki's words no longer apply.

Nine months ago the controversial Communal Land Rights Bill was published for public comment. After a long gestation period, it now appears that the Bill may be stillborn.