Land reform challenges hindering black farmers from thriving in South Africa

Land reform beneficiaries in South Africa are experiencing major challenges in making land productive and benefiting from it, due to the lack of post-settlement support.

This is because the country’s land reform focuses solely on redistribution, but not equipping beneficiaries with the necessary technical, infrastructural, and financial support to sustain that land, which is an important component in making land redistribution successful but is ignored, according to experts.

Dr Shenelle Lottering, from the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science, said inputs such as seeds and fertilisers, even basic farming equipment and training, are either limited or absent. 

She said this creates a situation where, despite having land, many beneficiaries struggle to farm it productively. 

“Customary land tenure adds another layer of complexity, because it is governed communally as well as by traditional authority. So, although it is providing access to land, it is not giving secure land tenure, like what private land ownership would; there is no title deed. 

“This becomes an issue when land needs to be used as collateral or to invest long-term in the land, such as through infrastructure, irrigation, or improved soil management practices. In terms of agricultural investment and productivity, the lack of formal land rights in communal areas discourages both public and private investment. Investors are often hesitant to support projects where land tenure is unclear or where there may be disputes over ownership and access,” Lottering said.

She added that land reform has had an uneven impact on agricultural productivity. While the moral and political imperatives of land reform are clear, the economic outcomes, particularly in terms of productivity, have been mixed and, in many cases, underwhelming. 

“Nationally, what we’ve observed is that while land has been redistributed, in many instances it has not remained as productive. This is not because beneficiaries are incapable, but largely due to the lack of coordinated post-transfer support; things such as access to capital, training, and markets are often missing. As a result, many redistributed farms experience a decline in productivity, especially in the early years.

“Regionally, the picture is more nuanced. In some provinces like Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, where communal tenure systems and traditional leadership structures are strong, you often see different dynamics playing out. Here, land may be accessed more easily by communities, but long-term investment is often stifled due to unclear tenure arrangements,” Lottering said. 

Conversely, in provinces like the Western Cape, where some reform projects have been better supported, often with stronger partnerships between the state, NGOs, and commercial farmers, we’ve seen relatively more successful models of land reform that maintain or even improve productivity. But these are still the exception rather than the norm, she said.

She added that land reform should be approached not just as a political or economic issue, which is happening in South Africa, but as a long-term investment in building inclusive, resilient rural economies that can contribute meaningfully to national food security and poverty reduction.

“New interventions should include stronger support for beneficiary selection and preparation, structured post-settlement support packages, and partnerships with experienced commercial players and NGOs. Importantly, policies must actively promote the inclusion of women, youth, and marginalised groups. Without this inclusion, there will be no success as women are the backbone of agriculture and the youth are the future of agriculture,” Lottering said.

In 1994, total farm land with title deeds, thus outside what the apartheid government set aside for black people, covered 77.58 million hectares of South Africa’s total surface area of 122 million hectares.

During his 2024 State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa said: “Through redistribution, around 25% of farmland in our country is now owned by black South Africans, bringing us closer to achieving our target of 30% by 2030.”

A total of 19.3 million hectares, or 24.9% of all freehold farmland in South Africa, previously owned by white landowners, has been restored, redistributed to black South Africans, or moved to state ownership, according to agricultural experts from Stellenbosch University.

Professor Johann Kirsten, the Director of the Bureau for Economic Research at Stellenbosch University said that although the number may look heartening, given that it is close to the 30% target set out in the National Development Plan, the issue of concern is that the state is now a major owner of agricultural land with more than 2.5 million hectares.

This is through the Agricultural Land Holding Account Trading Entity, which acquires land and property under the Proactive Land Acquisition Scheme, implemented in 2006, to allow state ownership for programme lessees.

Kirsten said by June 2023, the state had acquired 2.5 million hectares of productive farmland through the programme.

“Most of the roughly 2,500 beneficiaries have a 30-year lease agreement with the state. There are several farms where no agreement has been signed. The arrangement makes reference to the leasing of land. But there’s no mention of the transfer or sale of land to beneficiaries,” he said.

The acquisition strategy was a noble attempt at land reform. It had some clear objectives: acquire land of high agricultural potential; integrate black farmers into the commercial agricultural sector; improve beneficiary selection; improve land use planning; and ensure optimal productive land use, Kirsten said.

“But the programme has been disappointing. Virtually no land has been transferred to individuals. Most is leased to beneficiaries, and in some cases, the farms are illegally occupied. More than half of the current beneficiaries on the leased land have not shown any substantial agricultural production,” he highlighted.

Kirsten added that land should be in the hands and control of entrepreneurs, not the government.

“It is of the utmost importance that the government must act on this ineffective and politically charged system of land leases and ensure that beneficiaries are getting secure rights to the land. If not, the question about why there are so few successful black commercial farmers in South Africa will continue to be asked,” he said.

According to Stellenbosch’s Bureau for Economic Research, the factors behind this failure include poor beneficiary selection, inadequate support and infrastructure, and rampant crime. Inadequate post-settlement support, stakeholders appointed to support the new farmers were poorly monitored and not working in an integrated manner, and agricultural infrastructure, both off-farm and on-farm, needed attention.

The Bureau based its piece on a 2019 research report by the Agricultural Research Council for the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, which was not publicly disclosed.

The Bureau also noted that the failures mentioned suggest that the state will always be a poor player in redistributing land, as it will always hold on to it.

In a piece co-authored by Kirsten and Wandile Sihlobo, a senior fellow at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University, and published by The Conversation, they highlight that calls for the state to redistribute the 2.5 million hectares of land to black farmers have been falling on deaf ears, and black farmers continue to despair.

“The government has been slow to distribute the land it has acquired. This shows that the problem of South Africa’s land reform is not only about acquisition but also the distribution of land with title deeds to beneficiaries,” Kirsten and Sihlobo said.

The experts also clarified that there are more black farmers in South Africa than white farmers. 

“And not all white commercial farm operations are ‘large-scale’, and not all black farmers are ‘small-scale’, ‘subsistence’ or ‘emerging’. Most farm operations can be classified as micro or small in scale.

“Indeed, we are a country of two agricultures with black farmers mainly at a small scale and accounting for roughly 10% of the commercial agricultural output. Still, this doesn’t mean they are not active in the sector. They mainly still require support to expand and increase output, but they are active,” Kirsten and Sihlobo said.

They said that the government’s Blended Finance programme, in collaboration with the development finance institutions and other financial institutions, should provide financial support to the selected beneficiaries. 

Kirsten and Nick Vink, a professor of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University, said South Africa used to have an extensive support system for farmers, and under apartheid, white farmers received a host of subsidies.

South Africa reached high levels of overall subsidisation of agriculture in the late 1980s. These were so pervasive that the country was on a par with the EU and US when measured on a per capita basis, the experts said. 

A request for comment was sent to the Department of Land and Rural Development three weeks ago. Linda Page, the department’s spokesperson, did not respond despite multiple promises to do so. Reminders were also ignored.

gcwalisile.khanyile@inl.co.za