Title deeds for black farmers: right reform, wrong reason | Andrew Morphew

The President’s pledge to give black farmers title to about 2.5 million hectares of state land is the right policy, but it is not new. The farms were bought under the state’s land acquisition programme from 2006 and mostly leased to black farmers, some for over a decade. Conversion to title began in 2024, yet by late that year only 11 of 209 approved transfers were done. Announced three weeks before local elections, the pledge comes with no public schedule, a 10-year ban on selling and little detail on the finance and support new owners need to survive..By Andrew Morphew.On 12 October, three weeks before the local government elections, the President used his weekly newsletter to announce that about 2.5 million hectares of state land will go to black farmers, with title deeds.He had made the same commitment in Parliament on 2 June, in his budget vote speech.Two things are true at once. Giving these farmers title is the right thing to do. Using it as an election headline, without a plan to make it work, is not.What is actually being handed overThis is not new land. Since 2006, the state has bought farms from commercial farmers under the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy. By 2023 it held about 2.5 million hectares.It never gave those farms away. It leased them, mostly to black farmers. Some have farmed the same land for more than a decade without owning it.That was deliberate. In 2018, former land reform minister, Gugile Nkwinti, told Parliament that farmers given title would borrow against it, fail to repay and lose the land. By refusing title, the state kept it. The farmers stayed tenants.That policy has since changed. From 2024, leases have been converted to title, mostly for the farmers already on the land. The President’s announcement restates that.Why title is rightIt makes practical sense. A farmer on a short or expired state lease can’t easily offer the land as security, which shuts them out of most long-term finance. And a tenant has little reason to invest in land the state can take back.This is also what organised agriculture has been asking for. AgriSA called for these 2.5 million hectares to be transferred in 2025, and Agbiz’s Wandile Sihlobo has made the case for years, including on BizNews in June 2025. Black farmer organisations have pushed for it too.It is the most constructive form of land reform available. No private land is taken. There is no expropriation and no new purchase. The land is already owned by the state and mostly already being farmed.Where government is wrongThe announcement is bigger than the delivery.In November 2024, Parliament heard that of 209 projects approved for transfer, only 11 had been completed.On 30 September, Parliament’s land reform committee said it could not be satisfied with commitments and plans alone. It noted that the audit of PLAS farms it asked for in 2024 is still unfinished.There is no public, farm-by-farm schedule showing who will receive title, when it will be registered, or what support comes with it.There is also a design problem. The Minister told Parliament in April that the deeds carry a 10-year ban on selling, with a state right of first refusal after that. If a bank can’t realise its security, the deed does less to unlock finance than it should.Title is not the finish lineA title deed is an important step. It is not enough.New farmers fail for the same reasons established ones do: too little working capital, too much debt, no scale, and being price-takers on both inputs and outputs. Land reform farmers usually start with less of everything.What makes the difference is support: finance, practical advice and access to markets. Historically, that has been the weakest part of land reform. It has arrived late, been underfunded, and too often been captured by the politically connected. Apart from a general reference to blended finance and mentorship, nothing in the announcement suggests this time will be different.The bottom lineThe government is right to give black farmers title to their land. It is the most constructive form of land reform on the table..Read more:.Ivo Vegter: Ramaphosa's land deed promise is a good start, but it doesn't offer true ownership.But this announcement was about votes as much as farmers. A programme that has been running since 2024, with a documented history of slow delivery, was given a fresh headline three weeks before an election.A title deed is real reform. An election announcement is not delivery. The real measure is how many of these farms are still owned, farmed and paying their way ten years from now. That is the standard government should be held to, long after the votes are counted..This week a BizNews tribe member Gordon Hesom, sent me a pointed note. He’s a fifth-generation farmer who spent his career in agricultural inputs. He’s watched South Africa’s commercial farmers shrink from over 100,000 in the 1980s to fewer than 30,000 today. President Ramaphosa has now promised black farmers 2.5 million hectares of state land, with title deeds, three weeks before the local elections. Gordon’s question: are taxpayers funding the ANC’s campaign? And without training, extension officers, proper finance and access to markets, isn’t the plan doomed? I asked our go-to agric expert Andrew Morphew to answer. His verdict will please neither side completely. - BizNews editor Alec Hogg.From Gordon Hesom:Hi Alec,I'm a frequent watcher of BizNewsTV on YouTube; however, I haven't done a detailed search to see if there is any coverage of the ANC "giving 2.5m ha to Black Farmers".If it is true that the ANC is proceeding with this, it would be interesting if your associated experts could do an economic analysis of the following:1. This is clearly the ANC campaigning for votes, but the bigger question is: whose money is "funding" this campaign? I would argue that these farms are taxpayers' assets that are being redistributed; therefore, by implication, TAXPAYERS ARE FUNDING THE ANC'S CAMPAIGN, not the ANC's own funding. So what would the estimated cost of this be?2. The cost does not end with the value of the land. If this were a legitimate project to "transform" SA's agriculture, then it is doomed to failure unless the following are put in place: a. An extended programme of proper education (the business of farming) – not a degree or diploma in Agriculture, unless it involves time on a farm. b. A network of agricultural extension officers or advisors to guide these farmers. c. A bespoke financing system to fund: i. Capital-intensive equipment ii. Crop and input financing iii. Livestock financing that can guarantee the animals are productive and not used for celebratory rituals or just plain debaucherous parties iv. Capital improvements like fencing and stock watering v. Who's going to underwrite these debts, or will the government just repossess these "titles" and end up owning the land again? vi. Proper produce marketing channels to assist these farmers (if you leave it up to free-market channels, they will get eaten up for breakfast). Farmers are essentially price takers on both inputs and outputs, unless they have scale – which these farmers won't.3. I've spent my career in agriculture, both as a corporate executive in the farming inputs space and as a 5th-generation farmer who grew up on a farm and farmed myself. I've seen the number of commercial farmers fall from over 100,000 in the 80s to below 30,000 today. If you don't put a die-hard farmer on a farm, it will just be another disastrous experiment that will fail dismally (even if you take the politics out of it).4. It would therefore be interesting to see what the PV of all these future costs/investments would be, which we would be allowing the ANC to spend on their current campaign.Best RegardsGordon.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. 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Title deeds for black farmers: right reform, wrong reason | Andrew Morphew

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