The chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz), Wandile Sihlobo, spoke to Professor Johann Kirsten from Stellenbosch University, about an article he co-authored with him on South Africa’s land reform.

Sihlobo shares that South Africa’s land reform policy remains highly contested. But, it is their view that the number of persistent myths about the structure of commercial agriculture and farmland statistics skews debates.

He says this makes it difficult to reach some common understanding about the realities of land and agriculture in the country.

“In 1994 when South Africa became a democracy, white farmers owned 77.580 million hectares of farmland out of the total surface area of 122 million hectares.

“The new government set a target of redistributing 30% of this within five years. This target date has been moved several times and is now 2030.

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“According to popular belief, between 8% and 10% has been redistributed so far. But as we show below this is incorrect as it omits a number of key statistics,” shares Sihlobo.

He explains that only 17% to 20% of the 77.580 million hectares is suitable for field crop, irrigation and horticultural production.

“More than 55% of farmland is only ideal for extensive grazing (land that is poor and dry but animals can roam widely, the Karoo being an example), and another 20% for intensive pastures and animal production (the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands being an example, that receives good rains and has good pastures for grazing).

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“This shows that the potential of farmland being used to create full-time sustainable livelihoods is limited.

“This suggests that a careful and measured approach needs to be adopted in redistribution efforts.”

Sihlobo adds that these realities are the basis for their arguments against five standard myths about agriculture and land in South Africa.

“That’s not to say that there is not a great deal still to be done.

“But failure to recognise the gains that have been achieved means that policies can’t be developed based on what’s been achieved so far.”

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