1 An Examination of Market-assisted Agrarian Reform in South Africa Commissioned by the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF) Researched by Susan Tilley for the International Labour Resource and Information Group (ILRIG) Contents Map of South Africa showing the various provinces and ex-homeland areas Page: Executive Summary i - iv 1. Introduction ………………………………………………………………1 2. What is meant by Market-Assisted Agrarian Reform?……………3 3. A history of land tenure and agriculture in South Africa…………5 4. The framework for agrarian Reform…………………………………..9 5. Land reform strategies………………………………………………….16 6. Monitoring and evaluation of land reform…………………………..36 7. Conclusions - land reform and social transformation ……………37 8. Discussion questions and related index ……...……………………42 9. Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………..42 10. Appendices ……………………………………………………..……….43 11. End notes ………………………………………………………..………52 _________________________________________________________________ An Examination of Market-assisted Agrarian Reform in South Africa An Examination of Market-assisted Agrarian Reform in South Africa 1. Introduction The attainment of a hard-won improvements. Approximately 14 million democracy in South Africa after the people, or about one third of the South 1994 general elections was African population, still live in the former accompanied by high expectations of Bantustans1 where rights to land remain the ANC-led government to transform unclear or are contested. The system of property rights dramatically and to communal land administration is in a reverse the history of land state of disarray. On private farms, dispossession. The expectation was that millions of farm dwellers and their this would establish the basis for an families confront tenure insecurity and improvement in the lives of the poor and lack access to basic necessities such as dispossessed. These aspirations were water, sanitation and electricity. In the recorded in the Reconstruction and urban areas, informal settlements Development Programme (RDP) continue to mushroom and lack basic developed in the early 1990s. The RDP services. contained a commitment to redistribute 30 % of agricultural land within five One may well ask why this is the case. years. Essentially, attempts to activate and realise the aspirations of the landless The new government undertook the and to honour the promises of the RDP challenge of redressing the daunting have been quashed by the historical legacy inherited by its government’s neo-liberal macro- administration - 87% of the land was economic policy – the Growth, owned by the white minority, while the Employment and Redistribution policy black majority were expected to survive (GEAR). This macro-economic on 13% of the land. In response, the framework respects the protection of government devised a land reform private property rights, advocates policy in terms of three broad areas – reliance on market forces, and promotes restitution, tenure reform and fiscal restraint through tightly controlled redistribution. The key focus points were public spending. Overall, GEAR aimed poverty reduction and the redistribution to reduce state intervention in the of land to the dispossessed poor, farm economy. workers, women, labour tenants, and emerging farmers. The initial redistributive focus of land reform has been re-shaped and However, nearly eight years of the constrained by the GEAR strategy and transition period have passed and only the World Bank-promoted “market- 1% of the land has been redistributed. assisted” approach to development and While a blizzard of legislation and social transformation. The emphasis has policies have been produced, land shifted away from poverty reduction and hunger is still widespread and the living redistribution to the support and creation and working conditions of the majority of a layer of black commercial farmers, have not witnessed many _________________________________________________________________ 1 An Examination of Market-assisted Agrarian Reform in South Africa - May 2002 thereby discarding the initial intentions The fifth area of the paper focuses on of the land reform programme. the nature and extent of the monitoring and evaluation of the land reform The purpose of this paper programme. This examination of market-assisted agrarian reform in South Africa was The final section considers comments commissioned by the International on the land reform programme, the Union of Foodworkers (IUF). The obstacles in the way of the programmes intention of the paper is to offer an being actualised, pointers towards what overview of market-assisted agrarian is necessary to overcome these reform in South Africa that can serve as obstacles, and the extent to which it is the basis for a discussion on the possible for market-assisted land reform development of the IUF affiliates’ to contribute towards social position on agrarian reform in South transformation. Africa. It is hoped that it will also act as a tool to assist with the drafting of a Questions for discussion are included at charter for a campaign on land reform in the end of the paper in a bid to assist South Africa. the IUF in its deliberations regarding a position on land reform in South Africa. The Structure of this paper Each question has indexed references The paper has six key focus areas. The to sections in the text which are of first section of the paper presents a relevance to the focus area of that discussion of agrarian reform and of question. “market-assisted agrarian reform” (MAAR). Consideration is given to the The appendices are included so as to origins of the market-assisted approach give the reader more detailed within the international context of information on the issues under globalisation and neo-liberalism. The discussion. specific approach of MAAR in South Africa and the three arms of land reform The endnotes serve as a reference list in the country are highlighted. so as to provide readers with suggestions for further reading and The second section of the paper enquiry. focuses on a brief history of land tenure and agriculture in South Africa. It begins with the present day nature of the South African rural landscape and then provides a brief historical background to the present situation. The third section goes on to consider the broader framework that determined the character and features of land and agricultural policy programmes. This section is followed by a treatment of the actual land reform strategies, their implementation and a critique of these in terms of the implications of the market- assisted approach. It also offers pointers for consideration. _________________________________________________________________ 2 An Examination of Market-assisted Agrarian Reform in South Africa - May 2002 2. What is meant by Market- the management of the economy and in assisted Agrarian Reform? cutting back on its responsibility for the provision of services.2 The origins and character of “Market- The rise of neo-liberalism flowed from Assisted Agrarian Reform” the defeats suffered by the working Before analysing in detail the emergent class and progressive movements issues, it is necessary to clarify the term around the world from the mid-1970s “agrarian reform”, and what is generally onwards. Its consolidation was understood to be the character and reinforced by the collapse of socialist approach of “Market-Assisted Agrarian countries in the late 1980s. Neo- Reform” (MAAR) and to consider its liberalism is also a manifestation of the origins. ever-spiralling world economic crisis and the desperate quest for international Agrarian reform markets to rescue ailing economies. The “Agrarian reform” is generally effect of these defeats and crises are understood to mean an all- not only manifested on an ideological encompassing change in the scope of level, but also in terms of policy institutional and technological formulation and implementation – as a infrastructure in rural areas, and result, policies such as MAAR came to includes elements such as water and the fore and gained currency. sanitation delivery, housing, electricity supply, transport infrastructure, markets, In the 1990s an official shift of focus in credit facilities, policy programmes and agrarian and land reform took place land reform. In turn, these changes in internationally, as promoted in particular the institutional and technological by the World Bank. In Land Reform and infrastructure affect the social relations Peasant Livelhoods, Ghimire suggests in the society. Land reform is a key that during this period, redistributive element of any agrarian reform land reform programmes began to be programme and will be the central focus replaced by ‘Market-Assisted Agrarian of the discussion of “market-assisted Reform’ initiatives. He understands the agrarian reform” in this paper. rationale of this programme as being that of private investment ownership Market-Assisted Agrarian Reform providing the investment security During the 1980s and 1990s, economic necessary for agricultural production, globalisation precipitated profound and the use of the market as the best changes that informed the integration of way of providing the landless with land, the world economy more explicitly; developing equity and efficiency, and emphasised reliance on market forces; preventing environmental degradation.3 and liberalised international trade and cross border capital flows. This process The neo-liberalism of the 1990s militates is a manifestation of neo-liberalism against the redistributive