South Africa's Land Reform Programme (Panel Presentation)

Two-thirds of the land in South Africa, including some of the best land, is held by 60,000 whites, while 14 million subsistence farmers are working and living on Apartheid-era plots. In 1994, the new government passed a Land Restitution Act, which is now found in section 25 of the Constitution of South Africa." The main objectives of the land reform policy are: to redress the injustices of apartheid by redistributing 30% of the country's farmland over fifteen years; to foster national reconciliation and stability; to underpin economic growth; and to improve household welfare and alleviate poverty.' As anticipated, in the 1994 Reconstruction and Development Programme policy framework, the government's response to land reform has the three major elements of redistribution, restitution, and land tenure reform