Thoko Didiza welcomed back

The face of Thoko Didiza greeted anyone who opened the 2004/2005 National Agricultural Directory and its Afrikaans brother, the Nasionale Landbougids, our first agricultural publication. At that time Didiza was the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, a position she retained through two terms, from 1999 to 2006.

By all accounts she was a shrewd negotiator. We remember the stir in the crowd at an Agri SA congress when she stated that the 30% target of agricultural land to be in black hands excluded the former homelands. (A target which included these areas would have been easier to reach, and lifting the bar was significant). She also drove a hard bargain with AgriBEE.

Read the (Afrikaans) interview with Didiza from 2003, "Thoko Didiza praat kaalvuis" [Thoko Didiza speaks with gloves off, loose translation].

At the last function with organised agriculture, one attendee described the atmosphere as being similar to a funeral. She was a respected but popular minister.

Her prospects and challenges are well set out in an article by Mzukisi Qobo and Wandile Sihlobo in "Can Thoko Didiza unlock the Pandora’s Box of landreform and agriculture?" Further reading includes the Agbiz response tothe new cabinet, the Farmer's Weekly article "Agri sector welcomes newminister Thoko Didiza" and Landbouweekblad’s "Thoko Didiza weerminister van landbou" [Thoko Didiza again minister of agriculture”.

A look at the role agriculture played in rescuing South Africafrom technical recession in several quarters over the last five years is significant. Remembering that it is lately credited with only around 2.5% of GDP, the sector punches way above its weight! AfricaCheck places the figure of white owned farmland at 64.8 million hectares, or 53% of total land. No-one disputes the need for land reform. The question is more about how we are going to do it.

Expropriation without compensation (EwC)? You have to be careful with that one. It carries the certain implication of collapsing the agricultural economy. Not having title or property rights leaves farmers limitations on accessing finance and inhabitants carrying "a dead asset" (Kuyedzwa, 2019). Agriculture is “a strategic economic sector that the country needs to support for economic growth, inclusion, and to boost its competitiveness in the global markets” (Qobo & Sihlobo, 2019), and land reform needs to be addressed with cool heads.

The new cabinet will see Didiza leading the debate on EwC. They don't come cooler than this.