Myths Sully Debate on South Africa’s White-Owned Farms, Say Experts

Contrary to the oft-quoted data, most commercial farm enterprises in South Africa are black-owned, according to two land reform experts.

A farmer, poses for a portrait on his farm in Balfour, South Africa, on Oct. 20, 2021. Phill Magakoe/AFP via Getty Images

JOHANNESBURG—When President Donald Trump issued an executive order condemning the South African government’s alleged plan to seize white-owned farms, it reignited debate about land reform in Africa’s largest economy.

Commentaries and feature stories often cast white landowners as perpetrators of racism, continuing to farm territory they own by virtue of apartheid and colonialism, while their workers and nearby indigenous black inhabitants, the true owners of the land, live in poverty and squalor.