Ambiguities, limits and failures of South Africa’s agrarian reform

International audienceOn the one hand, the previous chapters have shown the significant diversity of existing agricultural production systems structuring the agricultural sector in today's South Africa. On the other hand, as this diversity still in many ways follows racial lines, these chapters also emphasise the strong legacy of the country's socioeconomic and political systems. Changes did occur, however, and were often related to predominantly the land, as well as some agrarian, reform programmes implemented over almost two decades. The extent of these changes, however, requires further analysis to assess the effectiveness of South Africa's agrarian transformation. Have the country's transformations allowed for more equitable access to productive resources and distribution of revenues and wealth created by agriculture? This chapter will dig deeper into the land reform projects and agrarian reform cases from the different regions assessed within the framework of this book. The analyses will focus on the structural changes embedded in the country's broader agrarian transformation. As such, based on the case studies presented (Chapters 4 to 9), they will not present another evaluation of land reform projects, but will complement the land reform literature (presented in Chapter 3) by embedding them within broader agrarian assessments