Land Reform in South Africa: Interrogating the Securitisation of Land Expropriation Without Compensation

Land has dominated public discourse and policymaking in both apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. The apartheid regime was noted for land dispossession, while successive post-apartheid governments, continue to face the daunting task of resolving the land question. Despite the implementation of land reform programmes as instruments for addressing land injustice, promoting land utilisation, and combating other land-related problems, there are compelling evidence of land inequality, rising poverty levels, land agitations and farm battles. The government recently responded to the failed land reform scheme by categorising the unresolved land question as an existential threat to the socio-economic and political stability of the country. Land Expropriation Without Compensation (LEWC) thereby becomes the proposed policy framework to attain government goals in the land sector. Through the framework of the securitisation theory, the article explores the securitisation of land expropriation without compensation, examines the factors responsible for the adoption of LEWC by the ruling party – African National Congress (ANC) and assesses the appropriateness of the proposed policy shift. The article recognises the imperativeness of revisiting the existing land policy but makes strong arguments for exercising caution in the adoption and implementation of expropriation without compensation.