South Africa's land reform policies have barely altered the face of land ownership in the country, even though more than two decades have passed since the dawn of democracy and with billions of rands spent on restitution.
This according to Professor Ben Cousins from the Institute of Poverty, Land and Agragrian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). He argues a combination of poor government policy, a lack of political will, a fixation on private ownership and the hijacking of the issue "by elites" have almost fatally wounded restitution efforts.
Land reform and restitution is guided by the Constitution and general law and aims to restore land that was taken from black South Africans after the Natives' Land Act was passed in 1913. This Act prohibited blacks to own or rent land, and confined them to about 7% of the country's surface. This was increased to about 13% in 1936.
The Commission on the Restitution of Land Rights (CRLR) recently told Parliament more than 123 000 claims have been lodged since the claims process was reopened in 2014, with 270 claims settled in the 2013/'14 financial year (the last year with available audited figures).
"At this pace it will take 144 years to settle the outstanding claims," one MP told the CRLR.
The biggest problem is that government has not used the Constitution to expropriate land and that it has been wrangling with amendments to the apartheid-era Expropriation Act for years, only passing an amended version in May of this year.
Dikgang Moseneke, former deputy chief justice, has said government has been dragging its feet and has not attempted to use Article 25 of the Constitution to return land to the dispossessed. He has been quoted as saying the Constitutional Court hasn't even had a test case to consider what just and equitable compensation according to Article 25 entails.
Cousins, in a research paper for the Nelson Mandela Foundation, warns that mass redistribution of land in itself won't alleviate poverty in rural areas. A targeted and focused intervention will however create "perhaps a million new jobs and make a difference to many households".
Structural realities however determine that commercial farming will still remain the primary economic activity in rural areas, with 20% of large-scale farmers contributing to about 80% of agricultural output, says Cousins.
Commercial farmers, represented by Agri SA, has since last year been trying to get clarity from government after the majority party in Parliament, the African National Congress, mooted a policy to accelerate land reform whereby farmers will be compelled to hand over 50% of their farms to workers. Agri SA has also put forward a framework it says will enable "sensible" reform without endangering food production.