We are yet to be convinced that if accelerated land reform does not occur, SA will suffer some cataclysmic social and political meltdown. Restitution is important, but there is very little land reform can do to erode existing levels of poverty and unemployment.
Our polls show that what people want is jobs and education, so they can live middle-class lives — the same lives the most prominent champions of accelerated land reform enjoy in cities.
Much of the noise around land reform is a strategy of political deflection designed to draw public and analyst attention away from failures in schools and the labour market. It is striking to see how effective this strategy has been.
Frans Cronje CEO
Institute of Race Relations
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