Abstract

The post-apartheid South African government continues to struggle with its transformation posture, including the quest to redress the racially based land inequalities that have plagued the country since its colonial past. The Covid-19 pandemic, the 2015 #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movements, and the July 2021 #FreeZuma violence have highlighted both the fragility and the resilience of South African political institutions. Since the formation of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a left-leaning and militant political party, in 2013, the South African land question has become more vociferously contested within government purview and in the public domain. Unresolved land issues have exposed the failure of the state to resolve one of its most sensitive national questions. We interrogate the land conflict and locate it within the broader national questions that have continued to haunt post-apartheid South Africa. Indeed, the South African land question must be understood holistically, and not solely as an agrarian question. Although the ANC-led government has implemented a land reform scheme under four pillars—land restitution, land redistribution, tenure security, and land development—there are still compelling cases of land hunger and conflict, as well as widespread confusion about the proposed land expropriation without compensation. Despite the rhetoric by government officials, we hold that the land debacle is a manifestation of a failing national question, state fragility, and an incomplete decolonisation process wherein the so-called “political power” held by the majority has not transformed into economic power and the effective redistribution of land to meet the targets of successive administrations.

摘要

种族隔离后的南非政府继续努力应对其转型态势，包括寻求纠正自殖民时期以来困扰该国的基于种族的土地不平等现象。Covid-19 大流行、2015 年的#RhodesMustFall 和#FeesMustFall 运动，以及 2021 年 7 月的#FreeZuma 暴力事件都凸显了南非政治机构的脆弱性和韧性。自 2013 年左倾好战政党经济自由战士 (EFF) 成立以来，南非土地问题在政府职权范围内和公共领域变得更加激烈。悬而未决的土地问题暴露了该州未能解决其最敏感的国家问题之一。我们审视土地冲突，并将其置于更广泛的民族问题中，这些问题继续困扰着后种族隔离时代的南非。事实上，南非的土地问题必须从整体上来理解，而不仅仅是作为一个土地问题。尽管非国大领导的政府在土地归还、土地再分配、保有权保障和土地开发这四大支柱下实施了土地改革计划，但仍然存在引人注目的土地饥饿和冲突案例，以及对拟议的土地征用的普遍困惑没有补偿。尽管政府官员言辞激烈，但我们认为，土地危机是民族问题失败、国家脆弱、