According to an official audit, 72% of farms and agricultural holdings in SA are owned by whites and 24% by non-whites. Of the latter, just 4% are black Africans, who make up more than three-quarters of the population. These figures are controversial and probably overstate the case. But they reflect a broad reality born of an injustice that began in 1913 with the Natives Land Act.
Cyril Ramaphosa, SA’s president since the welcome deposition of Jacob Zuma, legitimately wants to accelerate the process of addressing this inequity. Thus he is seeking to alter the constitution to allow expropriation without compensation. What he has proposed so far, however, is relatively modest. New measures could apply to "unused land, derelict buildings, purely speculative land holdings or circumstances where occupiers have strong historical rights and titleholders do not occupy or use their land".
Ramaphosa is no tub-thumping populist. Nor is he encouraging the violent seizure of white-owned farms as Robert Mugabe did in Zimbabwe. On the contrary. If he has made adapting the existing land distribution programme a priority, it is because it has become morally and politically untenable to do otherwise. By accelerating reforms, he may go some way towards taking the issue out of the hands of radicals such as the EFF of Julius Malema, who advocate a more violent reckoning. Doing nothing is to invite exactly the kind of upheaval US President Donald Trump claims erroneously is happening already.
If SA is to avoid repeating the destructive land seizures that ruined Zimbabwe’s economy, it must bring all sides on board and avoid undermining property rights and the investment environment. It will be a delicate balancing act. Ramaphosa needs to do enough to draw a line under the issue without provoking prolonged uncertainty. He must do so without threatening food security and productivity.
Equally, the government must inoculate the reforms against the crony capitalism that has given a bad name to black economic empowerment. London, August 26
Financial Times
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