Property rights non-negotiable for growth: IRR welcomes AgriSA's renewed commitment

The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) welcomes AgriSA's unequivocal endorsement of property rights as the foundation of South Africa's agricultural economy at its 2026 Congress this week.

Hermann Pretorius, Head of Strategic Communications at the IRR, says AgriSA's position is particularly welcome given the poor record of organised agriculture in defending the property rights of all farmers.

"For some years now, South African farmers have been ill-served by weak arguments, compromised principles, and inadequate sectoral representation on the question of property rights.

"For too long, several major agricultural bodies have put political accommodation ahead of a principled defence of property rights, whether by cooperating with government efforts to weaken those rights or by failing to oppose them.

"This has included a willingness to distinguish between farmers whose property rights supposedly deserve protection and those whose rights could be sacrificed in pursuit of political accommodation.

"In 2019, the IRR’s Gabriel Crouse exposed AgriSA’s notorious 80:20 approach, which contemplated sacrificing smaller and family farms to protect the large commercial producers responsible for the overwhelming majority of agricultural output.

"That was an extreme and indefensible position, and as recently as last year, I clashed in public with representatives of AgriSA, including its president, Willem de Chavonnes Vrugt, about the flaccidity of organised agriculture's position on property rights as threatened by such state instruments as the Expropriation Act.

"The inescapable reality is that property rights cannot be reserved only for some, the most politically connected, or those whose contribution to agricultural output makes them convenient beneficiaries of a bargain with the state.

"The rights of a small family farmer are no less deserving of protection than those of a large agricultural enterprise. Nor should the property rights of emerging farmers be any less secure than those of established commercial producers.

"Against this dubious background, AgriSA's full-throated endorsement of property rights this week represents a most welcome repudiation of the compromises and equivocations that have weakened organised agriculture's defence of the sector."

Pretorius says AgriSA is also correct to insist that successful land reform requires secure property rights, adequate financing, and commercially viable agricultural enterprises.

"Land reform undertaken without a full and unambiguous commitment to private property rights will be self-defeating, with potentially catastrophic consequences for agricultural financing and the creation of genuine ownership.

"Land is the principal asset against which farmers can secure the capital needed to operate, improve, and expand their enterprises. Undermine the security of ownership, and you undermine the financing arrangements on which agricultural production depends.

"Likewise, land reform beneficiaries who receive conditional access to state-owned land instead of full title remain dependent on government officials for their continued use of that land. They are denied the security, independence, and opportunity to accumulate wealth that ownership provides.

"South Africa needs land reform that produces more property owners, more successful farmers, and more agricultural investment. Any policy that weakens property rights defeats those objectives."

Concludes Pretorius: "AgriSA deserves credit for the clarity of its position on the inviolable importance of secure and protected ownership this week. The task now is to ensure that this commitment governs its dealings with the state, especially when political pressure for further incursions into property rights inevitably grows again.

"The IRR will continue working with any and all stakeholders and agricultural organisations to defend private property rights consistently, without any exceptions.

"Every South African property owner and farmer, present and future, deserves the strongest protection of the law. On this principle, a non-negotiable ingredient of uplifting economic growth and upward social mobility for everyone, there can never be any compromise."

Media contact: Hermann Pretorius IRR Head of Strategic Communications Tel: 079 875 4290 Email: hermann@irr.org.za

Media enquiries: Michael Morris IRR head of media Tel: 066 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za