Land Reform in the Eastern Cape: The Ongoing Struggle for Resources and Secure Rights

Land reform policy in South Africa is intended to redress the grave racial imbalance in land holding and secure the land rights of historically disadvantaged people. In the Eastern Cape, all aspects of land reform have experienced severe difficulties in implementation but important innovations have taken place in areas such as developmental restitution. Given the continuing importance of land-based livelihoods to a high proportion of households in the Eastern Cape, land reform has the potential to make a significant contribution to socio-economic development and the alleviation of poverty. To do this, however, it needs to evolve in ways that both deliver land on an enhanced scale and improve the chances of people making productive use of the land. The current market-based approach to land transfer has proven to be extremely slow, and a strong case exists for a more proactive approach by the state to the acquisition and redistribution of land.