Opinion REFORM POLICY Land seizures are complex, costly and unwise — just ask Zimbabwe Someone, somewhere, pays the price for expropriation without compensation — often it is the entire country BL PREMIUM

The ANC made a landmark decision in the December 2017 conference, where it indicated that it would start the process towards a constitutional amendment of Section 25 to make possible land redistribution without compensation. This is a marked shift in policy, and comes at a time when land reform (through the state and the market) has made more progress than experts and policy makers care to admit. Ironically, the ANC decision also comes at a time when the Zimbabwean government has established a compensation committee under its Land Acquisition Act to allow for dispossessed white former commercial farmers to be compensated for land seized 18 years ago. It raises the question why the ANC is taking a position that its revolutionary counterparts across the Limpopo are departing from. Nonetheless, if the Zimbabwean experience is not sufficient to proffer fundamental lessons for SA, then it would be prudent to point out a number of facts that should prompt policy makers to reconsider the A...