I regularly receive phone calls from farmers who wonder how to respond to threats of expropriation without compensation. My response is normally to say we should not panic, but neither should we be complacent.
We should not panic, because most probably we won’t see land invasions like in Zimbabwe. It has been suggested that the system of title deeds may be replaced with long-term leases of nationalised land. It might be that banks will accept the lease as collateral, just like a title deed. Nevertheless, we should not be complacent, because it might look as if nothing changes, but in reality everything changes. A farmer from Keimoes recently answered me quite comprehensively:
“Let’s say you are right. They take my land, but I may proceed farming on it. At the moment, I invest basically all my profits back into the land. I am switching much of my farm to pecan nuts. It is a crop which takes nearly a decade before the first harvest breaks even with that year’s expenses. Only then do I start recovering previous years’ expenses.
“My farm is near an informal settlement and pecan nuts are nice to eat. I have to fence the whole farm and purchase machinery to speed up the harvesting process – If I want to have a harvest.
“Infrastructure deteriorates. Technology improves. I have to upgrade stay abreast if I want to stay competitive. This means I keep on investing in my farm. I enjoy doing it that way, because I do it for the next generation. This is what most farmers do and that is why South African agriculture succeeds in an unforgiving natural and economic climate.
“When I retire and none of my children want to farm, I can sell to somebody else. The lifetime investment should maintain me until the children can inherit what is left, after I die.