DOCUMENTS

Govt's land reform surprise

New official figures show land restitution & redistribution efforts have covered an area far greater than commonly admitted

Land redistribution and restitution efforts by the African National Congress government between 1994 and 2017/18 have covered 12,1 million hectares, an area far greater than commonly believed. This was confirmed by data provided by the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, in reply to a question from Freedom Front leader, Dr Pieter Groenewald MP.

Groenewald had asked for detailed figures, by province, on the extent covered by five different modes of land restitution and redistribution up until the end of 2017/18: 1.) land restitution, 2.) the 36% of cases where land restitution beneficiaries opted for financial compensation rather than the restoration of a specific piece of land; 3.) land redistribution; 4.) tenancy reform; and 5.) the disposal of state-owned agricultural land.

In her answer Minister said that 3,5m hectares had been physically transferred to land restitution beneficiaries, while beneficiaries opted for financial compensation in areas comprising a further 2,9 million hectares. This means that government’s land restitution efforts have covered an area totalling 6,41 million hectares. Government acquired a further 4,9 million hectares as part of its land redistribution efforts, while land tenure reform covered a further 782 487 hectares, and state-owned agricultural land disposal 39 901 hectares. The total came to 12 139 044 hectares nationally. See Table 1. In terms of size this is an area greater than the extent of Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga or the North West and just short of the extent of the Free State, Limpopo, or the Western Cape.

The 39 901 hectare figure for disposal of state-owned land between 1994 and 2004 may be a significant under-estimate. Figures provided in government documents in 2003 and 2004 state that several hundred thousand hectares of such land had been redistributed post 1994 (see here and here.) It is possible however that these hectares were included in one of the other modes (land redistribution), in this reply.

Up until early last year government has generally tended to disclose figures for only (physical) land restitution (1), and land redistribution (2) when it came to tallying up the extent of its ‘land reform’ efforts. These had amounted to 8,2 million hectares by March 2018, just under 50% less than the full extent as set out in these latest figures, according to an earlier parliamentary reply.

In February 2018 the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform released its 2017 State Land Audit report on “Private Land Ownership by Race, Gender and Nationality”. This revealed, it claimed, that “Whites own 26 663 144 ha or 72% of the total 37 031 283 ha farms and agricultural holdings by individual landowners; followed by Coloured at 5 371 383 ha or 15%, Indians at 2 031 790 ha or 5%, Africans at 1 314 873 ha or 4%, other at 1 271 562 ha or 3%, and co-owners at 425 537 ha or 1%.”

ANC and EFF MPs in parliament now cited these figures in order to justify the lurch towards amending the Constitution to allow for land Expropriation Without Compensation in order to secure thereturn of the land to the rightful owners, who are the indigenous Blacks and Africans in particular”. President Cyril Ramaphosa also cited them in the Financial Times claiming that 72 per cent of farms and agricultural holdings are owned by whites, 15 per cent by coloured citizens, 5 per cent by Indians, and 4 per cent by Africans.”

It is clearly not possible to reconcile the claim that black Africans only owned 1,3m hectares of agricultural land in SA with either the 16 million hectares of former homeland land in the country, or the 9,2 million hectares physically transferred to mostly black African beneficiaries through ‘land reform’. The trick used was that the figures were for individually-owned non-urban classes of land only. They therefore excluded, by definition: all state-owned land; communally-held former homeland land, land privately purchased by black Africans post-1994 through companies, closed corporations or trusts; and almost the entirety of government’s post-1994 land redistribution and restitution efforts.

Provincial breakdown

The province with the greatest area covered by government land ‘reform’ efforts has been the Northern Cape, followed by KwaZulu-Natal, followed by Mpumalanga and Limpopo, the Eastern Cape, North West, and then the Western Cape. See Table 1. Absolute numbers can be misleading here given that not all provinces are the same size (the Northern Cape is the largest by far) and nor did each province have a similar share of either predominantly white-owned commercial farmland post-1994, the land the ANC government has sought to racially redistribute, or former homeland land.

The areas and relevant proportions by province are set out in Table 2. Just under three quarters of commercial farmland lay in the provinces of the Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Free State, while just under a quarter lay in KZN, Limpopo, the North West and Mpumalanga. Another relevant distinction is between land restitution for dispossessions that occurred post-1913 (which is tied to particular geographical areas), and land redistribution, which need not be.

Almost a quarter of physical land restitution has occurred in KZN, even though only 4,9% of commercial farmland was located in that province in 1996. Almost three quarters of land was physically restituted in the provinces of KZN, Limpopo the North West and Mpumalanga alone. The provincial breakdown of land redistribution was far more proportional. Nonetheless, overall 53.5% of land redistributed or restituted lay in these four eastern provinces. 

Table 1: Are of land restituted or restituted by mode and province

Province

Restitution

Redistribution

Total

(1) Restoration of land

(2) Financial compensation in lieu of land restitution

(3) Redistribution

(4) Land tenure reform

(5) State owned agricultural land disposal

E Cape

127 699

402 532

552 661

45 200

9 172

1 137 264

F State

58 104

147 754

426 092

44 544

4 122

680 616

Gauteng

17 443

23 371

61 151

4 879

513

107 357

KZN

847 912

172 259

590 272

206 289

5 382

1 822 114

Limpopo

706 423

827 955

181 209

33 797

6 730

1 756 114

Mpum

523 735

678 624

479 961

113 984

43

1 796 347

N Cape

701 014

503 943

1 544 127

57 203

0

2 806 287

N West

501 783

68 554

510 920

25 277

13 938

1 120 472

W Cape

11 042

95 394

554 722

251 314

0

912 472

RSA

3 495 155

2 920 386

4 901 115

782 487

39 901

12 139 044

Source: Reply by Ministry of Rural Development and Land Reform to a parliamentary question by Pieter Groenewald MP.

***

Table 2: Different classes of land in SA by area and relevant percentage

Province

Extent of each province

As % of country

Former homelands

As % of each province

Extent of commercial farms in 1996

As % of commercial farms 1996

Extent of individually white-owned ‘farms’

As % of IWOFs 2017

E Cape

16 891 700

13.8%

5 757 277

34.1%

10 327 660

12.6%

3 007 709

11.3%

F State

12 982 600

10.6%

238 582

1.8%

11 342 502

13.8%

3 748 192

14.1%

Gauteng

1 817 800

1.5%

91 447

5.0%

756 946

0.9%

275 021

1.0%

KZN

9 332 800

7.7%

4 223 491

45.3%

4 068 401

4.9%

853 152

3.2%

Limpopo

12 575 600

10.3%

3 399 298

27.0%

5 488 613

6.7%

1 139 454

4.3%

Mpum

7 649 500

6.3%

954 621

12.5%

4 544 012

5.5%

967 634

3.6%

N Cape

37 288 800

30.6%

1 689 794

4.5%

29 734 978

36.2%

11 498 449

43.1%

N West

10 488 100

8.6%

2 079 612

19.8%

6 179 490

7.5%

2 408 880

9.0%

W Cape

12 946 300

10.6%

0

0.0%

9 766 969

11.9%

2 764 652

10.4%

RSA

121 973 200

100.0%

18 434 122

15.1%

82 209 571

100.0%

26 663 143

100.0%

***

Table 3: Provincial percentages of where each mode of land restitution/redistribution has occurred

Province

Restitution

Redistribution

Total

(1) Restoration of land

(2) Financial compensation

(3) Redistribution

(4) Land tenure reform

(5) State owned agricultural land disposal

E Cape

3.7%

13.8%

11.3%

23.0%

5.8%

9.4%

F State

1.7%

5.1%

8.7%

10.3%

5.7%

5.6%

Gauteng

0.5%

0.8%

1.2%

1.3%

0.6%

0.9%

KZN

24.3%

5.9%

12.0%

13.5%

26.4%

15.0%

Limpopo

20.2%

28.4%

3.7%

16.9%

4.3%

14.5%

Mpum

15.0%

23.2%

9.8%

0.1%

14.6%

14.8%

N Cape

20.1%

17.3%

31.5%

0.0%

7.3%

23.1%

N West

14.4%

2.3%

10.4%

34.9%

3.2%

9.2%

W Cape

0.3%

3.3%

11.3%

0.0%

32.1%

7.5%

RSA

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

100.0%

***

Table 4: Hectares redistributed or restituted by province (all modes) as a proportion of different classes of land

Province

As % of extent of each province

As % of extent of commercial farms in 1996

As % of individually white owned 'farm' land 2017

E Cape

6.7%

11.0%

37.8%

F State

5.2%

6.0%

18.2%

Gauteng

5.9%

14.2%

39.0%

KZN

19.5%

44.8%

213.6%

Limpopo

14.0%

32.0%

154.1%

Mpum

23.5%

39.5%

185.6%

N Cape

7.5%

9.4%

24.4%

N West

10.7%

18.1%

46.5%

W Cape

7.0%

9.3%

33.0%

South Africa

10.0%

14.8%

45.5%

ENDS