Paper short abstract:

The South African government initiated a land reform programme as a means to redress the critical land issue that has the potential to derail the country's transition from apartheid to a democratic dispensation. However, lack of proper skills transfer process seems to hamper this ambitious plan.

Paper long abstract:

Land reform is a critical aspect as a means to redress the past imbalances created by apartheid in South Africa. Noble as this programme sounds, it has not been fully effective, with limited success. What has been revealed is that the absence of post-settlement support by authorities serves as a fertile ground to torpedo this ambitious, yet necessary programme. Lack of skills amongst the beneficiaries and within the myriad of government institutions has led to a massive failure to this programme. The eventual losers of this programme are predominantly the emerging farmers and rural populations that tend to rely on a successful and productive land occupation. The key objective of the paper would to identify the appropriate skills transfer model for land reform beneficiaries in South Africa with a comparative view from countries such as Brazil Kenya and China. The main objective would be to argue that skills transfer is a critical component to the success of any land reform programme, particularly in South Africa.