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Possibilities and Constraints of Market‐Led Land Reforms in Southern A frica: An Analysis of Transfers of Commercial Farmland in Postcolonial Z imbabwe, 1980–2000
Author(s) -
Pilossof Rory
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of agrarian change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.63
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1471-0366
pISSN - 1471-0358
DOI - 10.1111/joac.12090
Subject(s) - elite , politics , scholarship , government (linguistics) , economics , land tenure , white (mutation) , state (computer science) , land reform , capital (architecture) , deed , political economy , political science , geography , economic growth , law , linguistics , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , archaeology , algorithm , computer science , gene , agriculture
This paper provides a systematic basis, hitherto missing in the current scholarship, to quantify land transfers in Z imbabwe after 1980. It uses title deed information to determine year of sale via a number of sources. The main finding of this research is that a great deal of land changed ownership during this period, which, if the government had been committed to land reform, it could have acted upon. Evidence suggests as much as 67 per cent of white‐owned land changed ownership after 1980. The second is that, while a large amount of land did change hands, it was not the 80 per cent that many white farmers and their supporters have claimed. The figure of 69 per cent is still very high, but it is apparent that much of this did not represent ‘true’ transfer of land. By further investigating the land that did change hands, this paper also raises questions about (a) the possibilities of market‐led land reform in Z imbabwe and Southern A frica, and (b) the relationship between white capital and the new political elite in the postcolonial state.