Exactly a year ago, the Agricultural Business Chamber of SA (Agbiz) published a note calling for an end to inertia in the implementation of the land reform process in SA.
At the time, we urged the government to release the 2.5-million hectares of land acquired over the years through its proactive land acquisition strategy.
Much of this land was previously used for various farming activities.
Some of the land is underused, and some is under short-term lease to farmers who struggle to access the capital needed to unlock its potential.
A year on, in 2026, there has been little progress in this process.
The lack of progress runs counter to the country’s ambition to boost agricultural growth and job creation in rural SA.
When Agbiz assesses the long-term growth prospects for agriculture, it assumes this land will be fully used to boost agricultural output and create jobs.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and former agriculture, land reform and rural development minister Thoko Didiza pushed for the establishment of the Land Reform and Agricultural Development Agency.
The agency would drive the release of the land, with title deeds, to appropriately selected beneficiaries, address finance challenges and lean on organised agriculture and private sector skills.
The process to set up the agency has taken a long time, and now momentum has waned with no clear direction for the path ahead.
This agency idea must be revived, as it aligns with the presidency’s priorities on land reform and promises to be inclusive, with the involvement of the private sector and organised agriculture.
In his address at the opening of parliament in July 2024, Ramaphosa stressed the importance of this process when he said: “We will increase funding to land reform, prioritise the transfer of state land and improve post-settlement support by strengthening the institutional capacity of responsible structures.”
Thus, it was believed that the land reform and rural development department should accelerate the establishment of the agency and ensure that it would begin its work in 2026.
There is always the temptation to have elaborate consultations and dialogues about land matters.
In fact, over the past three decades, SA has spent more time on such dialogues than on policy implementation.
This year, the department should avoid the allure of these elaborate and unproductive meetings and consultations and instead move ahead with the programmes established in the previous administration, tweaking and improving them as they are implemented.
Failure to implement the programmes only prolongs the suffering of farmers on the ground.
It also makes it hard to believe the government is committed to the transformation agenda if land hoarding continues while black farmers remain on the sidelines.
If the government cannot move ahead with releasing more land and supporting farmers, it puts the long-term growth prospects of SA’s agriculture and rural economy at risk.
The success of other government programmes, such as the agriculture and agro-processing master plan, hinges on the progress of the land release initiative.
When the work begins, the approach should not follow the practice of the past few years, in which a land parcel is allocated to numerous beneficiaries.
The policy focus should be a deliberate attempt to support and nurture a new cohort of individual commercial farmers, not groups.
This entails selecting a few and a better new cohort of commercial farmers to support.
Focusing on creating and nurturing a new cohort of farmers does not mean the government must ignore the smallholder farmers.
They should continue to receive the necessary support, as they play a vital role in household food security.
The deliberate support of commercial farming will also ensure that there are anchors of farmers in each region, which can also serve as aggregators for surrounding smallholder farmers who wish to access commercial value chains.
This year should be a period of implementation and progress in land reform and agriculture.
Sihlobo is chief economist of Agbiz
