By 2010, land reform in South Africa is still having major problems. No positive outcome seems possible in the foreseeable future. Government is unhappy about the situation, new (mostly black) farmers are dissatisfied, and commercial farmers try to continue "in a state of constant stress and uncertainty". This is the view of Dr Jan du Plessis in the latest issue of Intersearch, a Pretoria-based think-tank publication.
Dr du Pless's comments coincide with renewed pressure by the ANC Youth League on the government to speed up not only the transfer of rural land to Africans, but also to give them access to urban properties. ANCYL president, Julius Malema, said recently: "We no longer want townships and rural areas. We want our people to live as equals." They should have access to land anywhere, "even if it is in the beachfront of Cape Town. Let's use this land for the benefit of our people and let's not sell it to the foreigners".
In 2001, a "New Strategic Plan for Agriculture" was signed between the government and the farmers' organization, Agri-SA. Very little, if any, progress has been made. The intention was to ensure that 30% of all agricultural land would be in the hands of black farmers by 2014. However, Agri-SA stated recently that only 5% has been acquired, and an incredible 90% of land reform projects have failed. The government has been unable to support new farmers and owes some 389 new landowners about R3.6 billion.
Dr du Plessis contends that "functional decay of governing capabilities" has changed the "farming environment" and that very few of the core strategies in the 2001 plan have materialised. Instead of more land being transferred to new black farmers, "productive farming has become increasingly difficult. The government focussed on land transfer, but completely neglected the enabling strategy of "knowledge and innovation".
Dr du Plessis comments: "The failed expectations regarding land reform by 2010 is a result of misdirected expectations and wrong assumptions - largely due to the application of a political ideology that has become outdated". The central issue was not ‘farming' but ‘land transfer'; as a result, the ‘farming component' basically collapsed from day one".
Over the decade, government and commercial farming "tolerated" each other in the hope that one would eventually accept the other's position. However, neither of them was willing to state in public that they were not talking about the same thing and that "land reform" in its present form was unworkable.