Speaking at the Nation in Conversation dialogue at the recent Nampo Harvest Day event in the Free State, Mkhabela said that dire poverty was driving the land issue.
Moreover, it had resulted in a marked decline in the popularity of politicians, driving them to use land reform to redeem themselves.
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“This is exactly what happened in Zimbabwe. The moment Robert Mugabe’s esteem went down, the land grabs began in an effort to regain popularity,” he said.
Dr John Purchase, Agbiz CEO, said that South Africa needed to make peace with the fact that land reform was a failure. The time had come to ascertain how it had gone wrong, and to re-evaluate the entire process.
“Business will have to take the lead. We can’t sit and wait for a crisis to happen. We must act proactively,” he said.
