Abstracts

41 land to be used more efficiently. If given to a black South African agricultural worker, the land could be used more productively in terms of agricultural production and wealth creation (assuming technical skill, land fertility, and access to cheap capital). EWC from absentee, hopelessly indebted, and criminal landowners would allow land transfer to South Africans who could contribute to the local economy. For example, if the government expropriated land from an absentee landlord of an abandoned apartment building and gave it to a black South African, that building could be used to provide affordable housing to black South Africans. Thus, EWC could replace economic non- contributors with economically disadvantaged black South Africans. Although there are some economic positives associated with partial EWC, understanding why South Africans would support full EWC necessitates conceptualizing land not as a commodity, but as a “social space.” 3 Vorster references a 2009 survey executed by land expert James Gibson, where 70% of black respondents indicated that they prioritize both the land’s dignity and symbolic value over its monetary value (Vorster, 2019, p. 4). Apartheid and segregation served to disconnect people from their land and therefore to dehumanize them. The inhumanity of apartheid and segregation, and their lingering effects, has made the land more than just the home of ancestors. It has added a layer where the land also represents a “symbol of dispossession” (Vorster, 2019, p. 8). EWC enables black South Africans to symbolically dispossess those whose ancestors dispossessed theirs. EWC offers the restoration of the land as a social space for Africans, which no longer carries the stench of dehumanizing dispossession. EWC provides the state with a legal mechanism to redistribute land at a far more expeditious pace to the dispossessed. It also offers eligible South Africans who have filed claims for restitution with an alternative, which promises to provide their family with land far faster than the snail- 3 I am greatly indebted to Nico Vorster’s conceptual division of land as a social space, spiritual inheritance, or a commodity based on reviewing written and oral submissions to the Constitutional Review Committee in September 2018. like pace of the Land Claims Court that handles land restitution claims. The advantages of EWC also are substantive from the perspective that land is a “spiritual inheritance.” Vorster (2019, p. 6) comments that “Adherents of African traditional religions generally believe in an ‘enchanted’ universe where the spiritual and material realm, ancestors, spirits and living beings are all part of one interactive reality.” To many South Africans, their ancestors are the God-entrusted custodians of the land whose job it is to maintain a moral relationship between the land and the people. Colonial dispossession and apartheid have deeply abused spiritual relational equilibrium with the land, which requires urgent restorative action: “whenever there is a breach in the order of the universe as established by God through the ancestors, humanity must see to it that harmony is restored. Failing this, humanity will suffer” (Kaunda & Kaunda, 2019, p. 92). Thus, when viewing the land as a spiritual inheritance, EWC appears to be an imperative policy because it offers to restore harmony in an urgent fashion, which will protect black South Africans from continued suffering. Cons of EWC It is widely accepted that South Africa’s economy is heavily reliant on foreign direct investment (FDI). On April 16, 2018, President Ramaphosa announced a new investment drive, with a stated goal of securing $100 billion in FDI within 5 years. Ramaphosa’s announcement, just two months into his presidency, showcases the President’s acknowledgement that FDI is indispensable to South Africa’s economy. Relatedly, Ramaphosa announced an objective to be ranked within the top 50 nations in the World Bank ease of doing business index (Ramaphosa, 2018). In October 2019, South Africa was ranked 84th of 190 nations (World Bank Group, 2019). As of January 2020, South Africa faced a 29.1% unemployment rate, the highest since 2003. In January 2020, the World Bank Group forecasted 0.9%, 1.3%, and 1.5% real GDP growth for 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively. These GDP projections lag behind the averages for emerging markets and developing economies. Moreover, this