Speaking to traditional leaders last week, President Jacob Zuma went off script. His comments were charismatic, even encouraging, but ultimately show how the issue of land is detached from meaningful reform, meaning one of the country's most important issues will continue to be exploited for political gain. By GREG NICOLSON.
“In fact it is beyond comprehension how a land as majestically stirring, as abundantly endowed with human and natural resources, as fertile in producing both food and feelings of intense joy and longing, can create nothing more than this shabby and repetitious growling of constitutional misreading, statistical embellishment, land-grabbing hysteria and food security myths, mostly led by intimidating, small-eyed, thick-necked, greedy men,” writes Antjie Krog in a new collection of essays, Land Divided, Land Restored.
Issues of land remain some of the most emotive in local discourse, chained to personal identity, livelihood, oppression, and violence. Yet the complex history and post-1994 systems of governance and redress are most often reduced to slogans, used and abused by coffee-shop-revolutionaries and campaigning politicians. Since the Economic Freedom Fighters emerged, voicing anger over land dispossession and the failure of transformation policies, efforts to lead the conversation have detached “land” from land, while actual work on the issue founders.
Responding to the rhetoric, and coinciding with the centenary of the 1913 Land Act, President Zuma and the ANC have introduced a raft of legislation aimed at giving the party the lead on the issue, which will change little. Last week Zuma, continuing the disconnected dialogue, suggested more troubled times ahead.
Compiling available statistics, Land Divided, Land Restored says by 2013 only 3.37 percent of land had been redistributed through land reform initiatives and 2.46 percent claimed through restitution, with around 20,000 restitution claims not finalised after being lodged in 1998.
“In 20 years land reform has only marginally altered the agrarian structure of South Africa, and has made relatively minor positive impacts on those to whom land has been transferred,” writes University of Western Cape academic Ben Cousins. Around eight percent of farmland has been transferred. Many urban, as well as rural, claims have resulted in cash compensation. Projects to build viable agriculture businesses from restitution claims have struggled and tenure on farms and in communal areas remains largely unreformed.
The failures stem from poor policies and implementation as meaningful land reform is sacrificed to politics. Addressing the National House of Traditional Leaders last week, Zuma highlighted two of these problems. More
Source: Dailymaverick.co.za
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