The Limits to Land Reform: Rethinking ‘the Land Question’

Household Returns to Land Transfers in South Africa: A Q-squared Analysis

“…Deininger and May (2000) find that, for 84 per cent of land reform projects in their sample, the median gross annual revenue per beneficiary is slightly negative at -R9. The impression that benefits are generally small or non-existent is confirmed by van Zyl et al (2001), Lodge (2003), Aliber (2003), Borras (2005), Walker (2005, and van den Brink et al (2006).…”

Introduction: Notes on political economies of displacement in southern Africa

“…Note, for example, the extent of Angola's ongoing problem of 'deslocados' and poverty levels in general, despite the country's vast natural resource wealth (Birkeland and Gomes 1998;Kaun 2008). In other cases these efforts have achieved limited success relative to available resources and capacity, such as with the land reform and restitution programmes in South Africa (Walker 2005). In yet other cases, postliberation or post-conflict conditions have generated new forms of violence, uncertainty and forced displacement, as in Zimbabwe (Alexander 2006;Hammar, Raftopoulos and Jensen 2003).…”

Integration Challenges of Water and Land Reform – A Critical Review of South Africa

“…The land reform programme in South Africa has been characterised by a slow pace of land redistribution and has failed to impact significantly on the land tenure systems prevailing on commercial farms and in the communal areas (Hall, 2009;Greenberg, 2010). In addition, the "willing-buyer-willing-seller" approach is only able to transfer modest amounts of land to a small minority of the rural population, while leaving the underlying structure of the agrarian economy largely intact (Walker, 2005). The perception exists that most of the land that has already been redistributed is not being used as productively as originally planned.…”

“…This orientation does not sufficiently capture and address the historical inequities of land and water ownership and rural poverty (Vink and Van Rooyen, 2009;Walker, 2005). The 2005 National Land Summit tried to address this problem by calling for land redistribution to be embedded within a wider agrarian reform process that focuses on poverty reduction and creating opportunities for smallholder farmers.…”

“…There may also be a need to develop a wider understanding and appreciation of water for productive uses at sustainable livelihoods levels and how this can impact on the quest for equity (Chikozho and Jacobs, 2010). Services that need to be provided include extension, training, credit/finance, marketing, inputs, infrastructure, management labour, capital equipment and provision of facilitation and strategic services that are appropriate to emerging farmers (Walker, 2005). Additional support structures that are needed are secure land title deeds, secure water/rights licenses, physical infrastructure such as water supply systems and roads, soft loans, markets, fertilizer, irrigation machinery, seeds, energy, information and research (Chikozho and Jacobs, 2010).…”