INSIGHT | Supporting land reform an investment in social and economic stability

For too long, SA’s private sector has viewedland reformas either a government problem or a political risk best avoided. Scepticism, uncertainty and fear of reputational exposure have meant that only a handful of companies have meaningfully raised their hands to supportlandreform projects. When a community regains land but cannot hire a transaction advisory team, a lawyer, an agronomist or a bookkeeper, and also have access to working capital, for example, that land becomes a dead asset.

This is not merely a social tragedy. It is an economic crisis. The Vumelana Advisory Fund, a not-for-profit organisation that supports land reform beneficiaries to make their land productive, has long argued that the slow pace of progress in land reform is not the result of a lack of intent.

Rather, it is the consequence of a persistent absence of post-settlement support and the lack of support and underfunding of the institutions that address structural challenges in land reform. It’s a misconception that once land is restored, the hardest part is over. In reality, the day of handing over the land to beneficiaries marks the starting point.

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The real challenges then emerge: the funding and capacity gaps between ownership of land and its productive use. These gaps are in two critical areas. First is the pre-investment void. There is almost no funding to fixgovernance failuresbefore an investor arrives.

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