Southern Africa/South Africa: From ‘’Willing Seller, Willing Buyer’’ to a People driven Land reform

Southern Africa/South Africa: From ‘’Willing Seller, Willing Buyer’’ to a People driven Land reform

It is 11 years into the new democratic regime, yet South Africans are still battling with issues of land. Many black people still do not own the land which was taken from their ancestors by the apartheid government. The legacy of apartheid can surely not be redressed in just over a decade. The South African government consistently claims that they have a land reform programme which will overcome this problem. Doctor Edward Lahiff, researcher at the University of the Western Cape, explains the ‘’willing seller, willing buyer’’ approach. He discusses the approach with regard to South Africa and how it can be improved in order to benefit South Africa.

Dr. Lahiff says that following the Land Summit in July 2005, the South African government appears willing to abandon the ‘willing seller, willing buyer’ approach. The government has however not indicated which approach it will be moving forward with.

In a paper for the Programme of Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), Dr. Lahiff states that the concept of Willing Seller Willing Buyer (WSWB) was first advocated by the World Bank in the early 90’s, it included ‘’selective expropriation, land taxes, subdivision of land holdings, and negotiated exit strategies for current land owners’’. However, the South African model had considerably diverged from the World Bank concept in its practice of Land Reform.

Furthermore, WSWB in Southern Africa seems to have been influenced more by Zimbabwe, with the specific meaning in the Lancaster agreement of 1980.In this particular agreement, the government could expropriate unused land, productive land in the hands of white owners could only be acquired if the government was willing to pay the market price for it says Prof Lahiff. The state was granted first refusal on all land sales, and wasn’t obliged to buy any land that it was offered. Dr. Lahiff explains that the intended beneficiaries (the landless) were not directly involved in the transactions, therefore could not really constitute ‘willing buyer’. This role was reserved solely for the state.

In the case of South Africa WSWB came in gradually between the years 1993-1996 and has come to mean something very different. The willing sellers were also private landowners, but owners were free to sell to the highest bidder or the buyer of their choice. Hence landowners can avoid selling land to people on grounds of race and still dispose of their land in the open market. Lahiff clarifies that the South African model cannot be said to be WSWB but a ‘willing seller’ approach.

Dr. Lahiff states that the Willing Buyer willing Seller model as applied by South Africa has three main elements:

• The discretionary powers of landowners (referred to as landowner veto),
• The price (compensation) paid to landowners and
• The role of state to assist would-be beneficiaries to acquire land.

This model has given much power to landowners and has to an extent taken away from those to benefit. Dr. Lahiff suggests that this landowner veto problem could be brought to an end in South Africa. Through selective expropriations in areas where sufficient land is not coming to the market, where there has been an unfruitful negotiation with landowners and where excessive prices are being demanded. Dr. Lahiff says that such expropriations with compensation are provided for within the Constitution and would ensure that the land veto power is addressed. Furthermore, this would increase land supply for land reform and sufficient land would be made available in areas where it is mostly needed.

Dr. Lahiff agrees that the current land reform has a major weakness, that of inequality of power between potential buyers and sellers. Lahiff suggests that the state could take the responsibility of acquiring land once a clear demand has been identified in a specific area. Enter negotiations with landowners to assess potential supply of land and cost implications. Many more suggestions and recommendations are made by Dr. Lahiff on the issue of Land reform in South Africa.

Just over a decade of democracy and LAND remains the debate of the present, it needs to be seriously addressed by government. Early interventions and clear commitments by government are critical for a way forward and effective land reform process over time.

The full report can be obtained from

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/livelihoods/landrights/downlo…

Doctor Edward Lahiff is a researcher at PLAAS (Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies) at the University of Western Cape.