Dr Peter Jacobs, a research specialist in economic performance and development at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), told Africa Check discrepancies exist between figures compiled by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, the National Treasury and “various researchers”.
South Africa’s land reform programme has been dogged by controversy amid reports of farms failing and projects collapsing.
A survey of land reform and restitution projects presented at a conference last year on agrarian reform organised by the HSRC indicated that one-third of 301 households surveyed were not actively using the land they had received.