South African Deputy Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Dirk du Toit has told a media briefing near Bloemfontein that agrarian reform in the country was about more than the transfer of land. He was speaking at the start of a tour of land-reform projects in the Free State.

The government’s dilemma is that it is constitutionally and morally compelled to redress the past injustices of land ownership, but, by its own determination, its agrarian reform programme will fail if it does not also achieve economic success. The land reform programme – which includes the restitution of land rights by next year to people dispossessed under the apartheid regime, the redistribution of 30% of white-owned agricultural land by 2014 and the restoration of land tenure rights – has achieved a measure of success with the settlement of more than 90% of land claims, but the attainment of the 30% redistribution target is well behind schedule. In Free State, only 7% of agricultural land had been distributed.