Complex And Contentious

South Africas land expropriation debate continues to roil everyone from farmers to foreign investors and financial institutions. What has the government done to address land reform?

- Ancillar Mangena

It’s a five-hour drive from Johannesburg to Smithfield in the Free State province of South Africa. As we arrive, the sun is shining its warm golden hue over 1,200 hectares of Eddie Prinsloo’s land. As we drive on the long dirt road towards the farm house, the smell of manure hangs thickly in the air. On the right is a beautiful view of the mountains towards Lesotho. It is quiet and peaceful here but debates about land owned by whites are getting louder and louder.

The issue of land in South Africa is big. Many black South Africans were pushed offthe best land and even denied opportunities to own land because of white colonial rule. In democratic South Africa, it has caused heated debates around dinner tables, in political party headquarters, and parliament and even had United States President, Donald Trump, tweeting. It has also given birth to opposition political parties like Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Andile Mngxitama’s Black First Land First (BLF).

Most black South Africans say they want land. The African National Congress (ANC) government agrees. It wants to change the Constitution to make it possible to take land from white farmers and give it back to black South Africans. It is calling it expropriation of land without compensation.

“The ANC will, through a parliamentary process, finalize a proposed amendment to the Constitution that outlines more clearly the conditions under which expropriation of land without compensation can be effected. The intention of this proposal is to promote redress, advance economic development, increase agricultural production and food security,” said South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa after the ruling party’s two-day National Executive Committee (NEC) Lekgotla in South Africa’s capital, Tshwane.