Nyhontso Admits Slow Land Reform Progress at ICARRD+20

The Minister was speaking at the second International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD+20), taking place from 24 to 28 February 2026 in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.

Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Mzwanele Nyhontso has acknowledged that while South Africa has achieved notable milestones in land reform since 1994, the pace of transformation has fallen short of expectations.

The Minister was speaking at the second International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD+20), taking place from 24 to 28 February 2026 in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.

Global Platform on Land Justice

ICARRD+20 brings together governments, social movements and international organisations to address global challenges such as land and water grabbing, climate change vulnerability, and redistributive land reform.

In his address, Nyhontso outlined South Africa’s land reform framework, anchored on three pillars:

• Restitution

• Redistribution

• Tenure reform

“While implementation has seen some significant successes where communities reclaimed ancestral land or the landless were assisted to access land, progress has been slow,” he said.

Overhauling Redistribution Policy

To accelerate transformation, the Minister said government is overhauling its redistribution programme, beginning with the proposed Equitable Access to Land Bill. The legislation aims to streamline land allocation processes and prioritise the landless, particularly individuals with potential to become viable commercial producers.

Nyhontso emphasised that land reform must remain:

• Pro-poor

• State-led

• Gender- and youth-inclusive

“We have a clear policy undertaking that 50 percent of all redistributed land must go to women and 40 percent to youth,” he said, underscoring the importance of securing the future resilience of the rural economy.

Youth and Women in Agriculture

The Minister noted a growing number of young people, including young women, entering agriculture and emerging as successful agrarian entrepreneurs. He said government is strengthening post-settlement support to ensure land reform beneficiaries become sustainable and productive farmers.

Moving Beyond ‘Willing-Buyer, Willing-Seller’

Nyhontso acknowledged that the earlier market-based “willing-buyer, willing-seller” approach did not deliver the required scale or speed of transformation.

To address this, government has introduced:

• The Expropriation Act

• The proposed Communal Land Tenure and Administration Bill

“These are not merely legislative tools, but instruments of decolonisation,” he said.

Tenure Security and Farmworker Rights

The Minister also raised ongoing concerns over illegal evictions of farmworkers and labour tenants, highlighting the urgent need to secure tenure rights, particularly in communal areas.

Call for Stronger Global Governance

On the international front, Nyhontso called for strengthened global land governance mechanisms. South Africa supports empowering the FAO’s Global Land Observatory to monitor land governance trends and urged the Committee on World Food Security to report regularly on implementation of international declarations protecting peasants and Indigenous peoples.

The Minister’s remarks signalled a renewed push to accelerate land reform domestically while advocating for stronger global cooperation on equitable access to land and rural development.