Towards a new White Paper on Land Reform and Rural Development
While the South African government has succeeded in rejuvenating and transforming important areas of our society since 1994, land and agrarian reform has been one of the areas where hopes for transformation have been dashed. Very little land has been redistributed, many land reform projects have failed to help create sustainable livelihoods, rural employment has plummeted and evictions have rocketed. After fifteen years, our rural areas are, if anything, more polarized than before, and generate fewer livelihoods.
Since the ANC declared at Polokwane in 2007 that reinvigorating rural development and land reform was one of its most important priorities, South Africa has looked to the Department of Rural Development of Land Reform for leadership and guidance. After the 2009 elections, Zuma’s government declared that reinvigorating rural development and land reform would be one of its top five priorities, and promised to unveil a new policy to replace the 1997 White Paper on South African Land Policy.
After more than two years of vacillation and evasion since President Zuma’s announcement of the need for a new policy framework, the Ministry has produced a document that provides almost no guidance on any of the crucial questions facing land and agrarian reform in South Africa. It fails to offer any serious proposals for public debate on what the alternatives are to scale up land reform.
Above all, for land reform to succeed, the country needs the Minister to engage robustly with the public to find answers to the pressing policy issues facing the nation.
In the wake of the recent release of the Green Paper on Land Reform by Minister Nkwinti, PLAAS has called for a constructive national dialogue about the future of the rural areas, and the role of land reform in this crucial process. As a contribution to this process PLAAS has hosted a public dialogue with key stakeholders from rural civil society, academia and the private sector to formulate proposals for a new White Paper on Land Reform.
The Summary Report on the Public Dialogue: ‘Beyond populism or paralysis: a real debate on South Africa’s land reform trajectory’ that was held in Cape Town on 24 October 2011, PLAAS’s Public Statement on the Land Reform Green Paper and our Submission to the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform: Comments on the Green Paper on Land Reform 2011 are available at the shown link and on UmhlabaNet, where you can join a discussion on land reform and rural development policymaking in South Africa.
Join the discussion on UmhlabaNet
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