Setting the agenda: a critique of the World Bank's rural restructuring programme for South Africa

Abstract

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Learning from the local: Rural livelihoods in ditsobotla, north west province, South Africa

“…Current debates about rural development policy for South Africa concern the prospects for implementation of a significant land reform programme and the feasibility of promoting sustainable livelihoods (Levin and Weiner 1994;Murray 1995;Lipton et al 1996;Williams 1997 concern the scope for an expansion of black commercial farming; and the scale of farm operation on which such an expansion might be possible. Additionally, what scope is there for promoting rural livelihoods which combine farming with other activities?…”

“…The land reform programme has been criticized for its importation of unsuitable models from elsewhere and for its over-confidence both in the capacity of the state to restructure rural society and also in the potential for land reform to generate livelihoods (Murray and Williams 1994; Williams 1996Williams ,1997Mclntosh and Vaughan 1996). In February 1996 the government published a Green Paper on Land Reform (South Africa 1996) followed by a White Paper (South Africa 1997).…”

‘Willing buyer, willing seller’: South Africa's failed experiment in market-led agrarian reform

“…In 1994 virtually all commercial farmland in the country was owned by white people, and the incoming ANC government set a target for the entire land reform programme to redistribute 30% of this within a fiveyear period. 21 The target date was subsequently extended to 20 years (ie to 2014), but, at current rates, this target is most unlikely to be met-by 2006 only 4.1% of agricultural land had been transferred under all aspects of the programme. Government has tended to attribute this slow progress to resistance from landowners and the high prices being demanded for land, but independent studies point to a wider range of factors, including complex application procedures, budgetary limitations and bureaucratic inefficiency.…”

‘After years in the wilderness’: The discourse of land claims in the New South Africa

“…On the one hand, NGO workers and officers in the new Land Restitution Commission (hereafter the Commission) combine a commitment to equity and redistribution of wealth with a pledge to restore lost lands to their former owners. On the other, the World Bank and other developers have stressed the need to promote viable agriculture in a manner not dissimilar to that proposed by Tomlinson, and thus to foster capitaliststyle production (Williams, 1996). Perhaps because of its commitment to the World Bank's vision, and because of the rise and current predominance of " 'statist' tendencies in the ANC and the aspirant petty-bourgeois and bourgeois elements of its (inevitably) heterogenous class alliance" (Bernstein, 1996:35) which underpin the willingness to entertain such a vision, post-apartheid policy on land reform has been conservative rather than attempting radically to overturn previous patterns of ownership.…”