Page 40 - The Economist Asia January 2018

The Economist January 27th 2018
40 Middle East and Africa
2 probably be minor. And abuses continue: Nkosi says. The government’s failures do not stop
on January 20th government forces killed Under colonial rule and then apart- there. Many of the farms that have been
at least seven people at a religious festival. heid, blackSouth Africans were systemati- handed over have since failed because the
More significant is the power struggle cally pushed off the land. Whites still own new owners do not have the skills needed
within the EPRDF, a coalition offour ethni- much ofit. Righting this historical injustice to run large commercial farms. As much as
cally-based parties. The Tigrayan People’s has been a creakingly slow process over 24 70% of the estimated 8m hectares of land
Liberation Front (TPLF) has long wielded years of democracy. The government transferred by the state since the end of
influence disproportionate to the number promised to transfer 30% of white-owned apartheid is now fallow.
ofTigrayans, who are about 6% ofthe pop- farmland to blacks by1999; most estimates Instead of fixing its shortcomings, the
ulation. But this may change. The Oromo reckon it has only transferred 10%. This government is exacerbating them. In re-
People’s Democratic Organisation, which dawdling pace, combined with a stagnant cent years it has stopped transferring own-
isalso partofthe rulingcoalition, wasseen economy and rising unemployment (it re- ership of land to black farmers because it
for years as a puppet of the TPLF. Yetithas cently hit 37%), provides fertile ground for frets they may sell it to whites. Instead it
rebranded itself as a populist, quasi-oppo- populist politicians. Loudest has been the now leases the land to blacktenants. With-
sition movement. Under Lemma Megersa, EconomicFreedom Fighters, a thuggish op- out assets to borrow against, these new
its charismatic new leader, it has adopted position party appealing to poor blacks farmers find it difficult to get capital.
many of the protesters’ demands, includ- with promises of nationalised banks and Yet if done well, land reform could
ingthe release ofpolitical prisoners. the confiscation of white-owned land. salve open wounds. The question is how
The embattled prime minister, Haile- That, in turn, is pushing the ruling African to do it well. Peter Setou, the chief execu-
mariam Desalegn, may soon resign. Ifso, a National Congress (ANC) to sharpen its tive of the Vumelana Advisory Fund, says
successor must be found before the EPRDF rhetoric. At a conference in December the that partnerships between private inves-
congress scheduled for March, but sure to party adopted a policy of changing the tors and communities that are given land
be postponed. Many in Oromia want it to constitution to allow it to confiscate land seem to work. But confusion around the
be Mr Lemma, the country’s most popular without compensation. ANC’s policy on land expropriation deters
politician. Yet the EPRDF is bitterly at odds Cyril Ramaphosa, the ANC’s business- would-be investors. “We cannot have this
over the succession. Fetsum Berhane, a friendly new leader and its candidate in level ofuncertainty,” he says.
sympathetic commentator, wonders presidential electionsin 2019, hascautious- Under another model, known as the
whether it has enough zeal to reform. “I’m ly tried to walk a tightrope between radi- 50/50 framework, the government buys
not sure anybody is fighting over any ide- cals in his own party and economic catas- land and leases it back to a company co-
als orissues except power,” he says. 7 trophe. Expropriation could “make this owned by the farmer and farm workers.
country the garden of Eden”, he has said, Andrew Braithwaite, a fifth-generation
but with big caveats: it must not under- farmer, tookpart in a project that saw long-
Land in South Africa mine the economy, agricultural produc- time workers on his sugar cane farm in
tion orfood security. KwaZulu-Natal province become co-own-
Dreams of fields That is code for not copying Robert Mu- ers ofa farming business. “People feel they
gabe, the former president of neighbour- have something to lose,” he says. “It adds
ing Zimbabwe. When Mr Mugabe started stability to the nation.”
grabbing white-owned commercial farms It isn’t just a matter of farms changing
in 2000, he destroyed far more than a suc- hands. Mr Ramaphosa says that land
cessful agricultural industry. He also owned by government departments and
HOEDSPRUIT smashed what was once one of southern municipalities should be released for
South Africa gets land reform wrong
Africa’s most diversified economies. Min- housing. Thatwould make iteasierfor peo-
ANNES BOOYENS, clad in the khaki ing, tourism and manufacturing all col- ple to move to cities, where the jobs are.
Hshorts and shirt ofthe Afrikaner farm- lapsed within a few years. As it is, farming generates about 2% of
er, shows off tidy rows of trees hanging Forall itsfieryrhetoric, the ANCgovern- GDP. Voters may like the idea ofland redis-
heavy with grapefruits, soon to be plucked ment has shown remarkably little vigour tribution, but not as much as they want
forexport. Hezekiel Nkosi, the chairman of in using the laws it already has. Its alloca- good jobs in the city. That is even true for
the Moletele Communal PropertyAssocia- tion for buying land for redistribution has those who were kicked off their land dur-
tion, which ownsthe land and employs Mr slumped to less than 0.1% of the national ing apartheid: most of those who have
Booyens, nods approvingly. “We are hap- budget. And it is sitting on as many as lodged claims for restitution have asked
py,” Mr Nkosi says. “We need the best tech- 4,000 farms that it has bought but not yet the courts to give them cash as compensa-
nology, the best farm managers. Other- handed overto blackowners. tion instead offarms. 7
wise this is a fruitless operation.”
The Moletele people were forced from
this land, a picturesque cornerofSouth Af-
rica’s Limpopo province, mainly in the
1950s and 60s. They got back 7,000 hect-
ares of citrus and mango farms in 2007
after a legal claim but struggled to run
them. One of the farms collapsed. Mole-
tele leaders went looking for help. The Vu-
melana Advisory Fund, a non-profit that
helps land reform projects, appointed ad-
visers to develop a commercial partner-
ship. The Moletele community now has
access to capital and expertise. Young peo-
ple are being trained so they can run the
farms in future. “The best way was to
partnerwith those that have the skills,” Mr Who’s the boss?