Post-apartheid land-fix fails the dispossessed

The new government wrote the idea into the constitution and made a plan that would make the dispossessed - some of whom remained on their land, milking cows, driving tractors and ploughing fields for poverty-level wages - independent farmers.

The post-apartheid government devised a programme under which it would buy agricultural land from white farmers and turn parcels over to blacks who had claims on the territory. It offered money, advice and moral support. But the black farmers do not own the land, the government does. Without ownership, farmers cannot get loans from banks because they can't use the farm for security.

In addition, Business Report says, South Africa's land reform ideals are being crushed by government mismanagement and the new, small-scale operations need to compete with the industrial-size farms that have made the country a global agricultural powerhouse, exporting billions of dollars in farm products.

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