Equitable access to land for social justice in South Africa

Abstract

This report analyses the trajectory of land reform in South Africa and its implications for equitable access to land. The report combines insights from empirical research and inclusive dialogues to analyse the extent to which land reform laws and policies adequately promote equitable access to land as provided for in Section 25 of the Constitution. These insights are based on in-depth interviews with land reform beneficiaries and different key informants in the land sector. A series of workshops conducted during the course of the research allowed different societal groups to articulate diverse and often contested ideas of what constitutes a successful and equitable land reform in South Africa. The dialogues were important in interrogating deeply entrenched and enduring assumptions about land reform, development and the overall trajectory of transformation in South Africa. Some of the enduring assumptions include the narrow focus on replicating the large-scale commercial farming model in land redistribution while neglecting the role of land in sustaining multiple and diverse livelihoods for the landless poor. ‘Productionism’ is also evident in the narrow focus on agriculture and neglect of the complex and differentiated land needs associated with the incessant process of urbanisation. Both the tendency to replicate the large-scale commercial farming model in land redistribution and the narrow focus on farming while neglecting multiple and diverse land needs of the landless poor undermine equitable access to land. The report argues that equitable land reform should account for the diverse land needs associated with a rapidly changing agrarian landscape where rapid urbanisation occurs amidst the decline of farming livelihoods, widespread unemployment, and complex urban-rural migration patterns. Accordingly, a broad framing of success is imperative, beyond the productionism that seeks to replicate the large-scale commercial farming model while neglecting the complex realities of a changing agrarian landscape.