Letters
Jul 28th 2005
From The Economist print edition
The Economist, 25 St James's Street, London SW1A 1HG
FAX: 020 7839 2968 E-MAIL: letters@economist.com
SIR – You illustrate the difficulties of creating viable new black-owned farms through land reform in South Africa (“Should reform be faster or steadier?”, July 9th). Almost every measure enacted by government to protect and help poor black farmers has ended up impoverishing them even further. For instance, a farm co-operative programme was created in the 1990s, but the initiative failed because of a lack of full property rights attached to newly acquired land. Authorities feared that, left to their own devices, co-ops might sell their land back to white farmers, so they made it impossible for them to do so. A project I recently managed in Limpopo, which aimed to salvage about 25 co-op farms, proposed that the co-ops be transformed into corporations and enter into joint-ventures with white commercial farmers. The provincial agriculture department rejected the idea as a cover for restoring white ownership.
For land reform to succeed, property rights must be absolute. The willing buyer-seller principle is a critical part of that, but the new owners must also have full rights that enable them to sell their land; these rights cannot coexist with a paternalistic system telling them what they may or may not do with their property. Only by granting full property rights will South Africa be able to create a class of independent black landowners and thus avoid replicating Zimbabwe's tragic example.
Charles Krakoff
Koios Associates
Acton, Massachusetts
|
