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ISSUE 70 • OCTOBER 2013 EVERATT | COUSINS | PIENAAR | WEINBERG PRINGLE | DE JAGER | PITYANA | LOUW REVIEWS | MTWESI AND LOUW | PREMHID | EGAN helen.suzman.foundation Director Francis Antonie Editor-in-Chief Francis Antonie Principal Sub-editor Wim Louw Sub-editors Eythan Morris Anele Mtwesi Board of Trustees Ken Andrew Hylton Appelbaum, Doug Band, Colin Eglin, Jane Evans, William Gumede, Nicole Jaff, Daniel Jowell, Temba Nolutshungu, Krishna Patel, Gary Ralfe, Sipho Seepe, Mary Slack, Richard Steyn, David Unterhalter Design & Layout Alison Parkinson Focus is published by The Helen Suzman Foundation, Postnet Suite 130 Private Bag X2600 Houghton, 2041 No 2 Sherborne Road Parktown, 2193 Email: [email protected] Website: www.hsf.org.za ISSN 1680-9822 The publication of Focus is made possible through generous funding provided by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty Contributors Prof Ben Cousins Dr Anthony Egan (review) Dr Theo de Jager Leon Louw Wim Louw (review) Anele Mtwesi (review) Prof Gerrit Pienaar Sipho Pityana Politicsweb Kameel Premhid (review) Ernest Pringle Tara Weinberg CONTENTS Overview and Welcome Francis Antonie 2 The Natives Land Act: Ten Historical Quotes 4 Politicsweb Land Redistribution, Populism and Elite Capture: New Land Reform Policy Proposals under the Microscope 11 Prof Ben Cousins Land Tenure Security: The Need for Reliable Land Information 20 Prof Gerrit Pienaar Overcoming the legacy of the Land Act requires a Government that is less paternalistic, more accountable to rural people 28 Ms Tara Weinberg Land Reform and White Ownership of Agricultural Land in South Africa 37 Mr Ernest Pringle Legacy of the 1913 Natives Land Act – Taking Up the Challenge 43 Dr Theo de Jager The Constitution, the Land Question, Citizenship and Redress 48 Mr Sipho Pityana Land Distribution Paradoxes and Dilemmas 54 Mr Leon Louw BOOK REVIEWS The Promise of Land: Undoing a Century of Dispossesion in South Africa edited by Fred Hendricks, Lungisile Ntsbeza and Kirk Helliker Anele Mtwesi and Wim Louw 66 The EU and Africa: From Eurafrique to Afro-Europa edited by Adekeya Adebajo and Kaye Whiteman Kameel Premhid 68 The Hidden Thread: Russia and South Africa in the Soviet Era By Irina Filatova & Apollon Davidson Dr Anthony Egan 71 The views expressed in the articles are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Helen Suzman Foundation. 1 THE JOURNAL OF THE HELEN SUZMAN FOUNDATION | ISSUE 70 | OCTOBER 2013 Overview and welcome This year marks 100 years since the passing of the Natives Land Act of 1913. This Act has had profound consequences not only for individuals and communities, but it has also, in part, determined the political trajectories of modern South Africa. This edition of Focus is devoted to the Land Question. The so-called ‘Land Question’ in South Africa is fraught with many difficulties. These include the challenge of establishing what land belongs to whom; managing Francis Antonie is land administration and land claims; promoting urban development; agricultural the Director of the Helen transformation; and securing tenure-security and genuine ownership for millions Suzman Foundation. He of South Africans. is a graduate of Wits, Leicester and Exeter The Constitution protects existing rights to land and authorises the promotion of Universities. He was land reform within the framework provided by Section 25. It may very well be true awarded the Helen to say that Section 25 is characterized by a tension between protecting existing Suzman Chevening property rights and achieving justice in access to land. This tension, it could be Fellowship by the UK argued, is exacerbated by land reform policies that are perceived to be failing so Foreign Office in 1994. many South Africans. From 1996 to 2006 he was senior economist In response, Government has indicated a need to intensify the land redistribution at Standard Bank; program (apparently moving from a ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ to a ‘just and thereafter he was director equitable’ approach). More recently, the National Development Plan (NDP) of the Graduate School recommends that every municipal district with commercial farmland within its of Public Development borders should establish representative committees to facilitate a 20% transfer of and Management at land to black ownership, under very specific guidelines to prevent market distortions. Wits University. He is But there remain significant doubts as to whether land reform policies are effectively the founding managing designed, or even coherent. director of Strauss & Co. In this edition, various distinguished scholars and writers discuss the broader implications of land reform. The edition opens with an article, The Natives’ Land Act: Ten historical quotes, that presents “ten extracts from contemporaneous texts of the time, or history books written after the signing into law of the 1913 Natives’ Land Act”. It provides an insightful context to frame the articles that follow. Ben Cousins’ article, Land Redistribution, Populism and Elite Capture: New Land Reform Policy Proposals under the Microscope, argues that the rural poor and small-scale farmers are not the intended beneficiaries of government’s land redistribution policies, and that existing and new policies are not properly designed. Cousins is critical of the policies that government has pursued since 1994, and what has remained of these in new land policies (the State Land Lease and Disposal Policy, the Recapitalisation and Development Programme Policy, and the Agricultural Landholding Policy Framework). Cousins argues that the real 2 THE LAND QUESTION beneficiaries of land redistribution policies are the cannot be regarded as valueless. Small-holder farms emergent black bourgeoisie. are valuable, but they have a specific place in the value-chain. De Jager argues that “land reform must Gerrit Pienaar’s article, Land Tenure Security: The be about more than merely the transfer of land and Need for Reliable Land Information, looks at the land rectifying injustices of the past”, it must be about registration system and some aspects of the history transforming the sector. Farmers should be directly of land registration and its shortcomings. He argues involved in the transformation of the sector, and that a suitable land administration system is lacking, government should provide options and incentives and that this results in tenure insecurity and a lack to this effect. of administrative support for agricultural activities. Land administration is the “integrated processes Sipho Pityana, in his article The Constitution, the of determining, recording and disseminating Land question, Citizenship and Redress, argues information on tenure, value and usage of land in that Section 25 of the Constitution does not have the context of developing suitable land management to be interpreted as only supporting a ‘willing buyer, and development policies.” Pienaar argues that a fully willing seller’ model, and that a more liberal reading computerised land registration system is a solution. is possible. He argues that limitations placed on land reform are limitations of policy choices and that these Tara Weinberg’s article, Overcoming the legacy of have found expression in laws passed by parliament the Land Act, requires a Government that is less rather than the Constitution. Pityana points out that paternalistic, more accountable to rural people, argues mineral resources and capital accumulation are at the that the post-apartheid government has actively centre of our economy, more so than just agriculture. excluded rural people from land policy by solely These players should also be involved in addressing considering the interests of commercial farmers the legacy of the Land Act. He poses some difficult and traditional leaders. This paternalistic approach questions to government and citizens, reminding has negatively affected rural people, and especially readers that our constitutional democracy is based on rural women. Weinberg argues that the restitution “affirming the values of human dignity, equality and programme is being used to consolidate the power freedom”. of elites. She concludes that “if government is to move towards realizing the right to tenure security, Finally, Leon Louw, in his article, Land Distribution it should approach land reform with less paternalism Paradoxes and Dilemmas, points out that the land and more accountability to rural people.” question in South Africa is misconstrued because it relies on a number of problematic assumptions that Ernest Pringle, in his article, Land Reform and are assumed to be true. He attempts to point out white ownership of agricultural land in South Africa, what he perceives to be misconceptions underlying criticises the government’s targets for land reform. discussion about land distribution, ownership, and He argues that these have been incorrectly measured. proposed policy. Louw argues that “if politicians are Pringle argues that land distribution is not as racially serious about achieving a vision of racial equity and skewed as is supposed, if a proper measurement is equality, they would declare all permanent holders applied. of land to be unambiguous owners of freely tradable, mortgage able and lettable land”. Theo De Jager, in his article, Legacy of the 1913 Natives Land Act – Taking up the challenge, argues We conclude this edition with three book reviews: by that farms are businesses and that agricultural and Anele Mtwesi and Wim Louw; Kameel Premhid; and commercial investment cannot