Farm Conflicts and the South African Unresolved Land Question

Abstract

South Africa is confronted by heightened socio-economic and political instability. This was borne out of apartheid history of land conflicts, dispossessions, exploitations, expropriations and contestations. It further reinforced inequalities and a skewed land distribution that deny Africans of land ownership and use. Post-apartheid governments have been unsuccessful in using land reform to resolve the national land question, redress structural violence and ameliorate the hostility between the white farmers and black farmworkers. This has continued to engender violent conflicts and farm murders. Thus, through desktop research, the article examines the link between land reform and farm conflicts, reviews the spate of farm murders, reveals the causes of farm conflict and locates farm conflict in historical and contemporary contexts. While the history of land dispossession and land inequality, failed land reform programmes and poor labour relations between the farmers and farm workers account for the attacks on farmers; there are other intrinsic and deeplyrooted factors responsible for farm attacks in the country. Indeed, farm murders are real and the whites are usually the victims, but categorizing it as purely a systemic "white genocide" might be an over sensitization of the issue. The government should recognise the peculiarity and complexity of farm conflict, and protect the lives and property within its territorial integrity.