Land reform, equity and growth in South Africa: A comparative analysis

• Main Author: Weideman, Marinda
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2006
• Subjects: gender; size; farm; Agrarian reform; credit; Land reform; South Africa; equity
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10539/275

PhD - Political Studies === In this thesis, the following methods were used to assess the South African Land Reform Programme; historically important documents, policy papers, library research, qualitative interviews and a comparative analysis, which included a wide range of African, Asian and Latin American countries. The aim of the thesis was twofold. First, to assess whether an essentially market-based land reform programme might bring about equity and growth. Second, to draw lessons and make recommendations based on an analysis of land reform programmes in other countries, as well as on South African case studies. Emerging issues related to farm size, food security, poverty alleviation, appropriate credit policies, the limitations of market-based reform, the problems relating to bureaucratic reform programmes, the importance of beneficiary participation, the necessity to develop a gender sensitive programme and, finally, the undeniable relationship between violence and land reform. This thesis highlights the link between the omission of gender in policy development and subsequent policy failures. It highlights the relationship between land reform and violence and, it points to the varied nature of rural livelihoods. There is also a focus on how South African land reform policies developed and an analysis of the influence that the various actors, who participated in this process, had on subsequent