Land reform promises stolen by political elites again

We’ve seen this tragic movie before: land is promised to a dispossessed people deprived of it by colonial conquest and racism… only for the new political elite to get their grubby, corrupt hands on it, while the deserving continue to suffer in poverty.

To the north of us, when Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe began his land “revolution” as a diversion from the collapse of his economy – and seized land from white farmers – it was the “chefs” (bosses) in his ruling Zanu-PF party who were the main beneficiaries.

Researchers have identified a similar phenomenon in South Africa, where they estimate that one in four land claims had been hijacked similarly.

KwaZulu-Natal livestock farmer Vuyani Zigana is fighting to retain the farm he was lawfully given, after the provincial department of agriculture, land reform and rural development classified his occupation of it as “illegal”. He believes the land has been promised to a politically connected individual.

This is the seedy underbelly of land redistribution and it is doubly destructive: it hurts the individuals who are dispossessed again, but also gives ammunition to critics of what should be an essential part of restorative justice and nation-building.

These cases cannot be ignored and must be investigated.