Tense Year Ahead for South Africa’s White Farmers

Some white farmers have had role in land-sharing initiatives, development of black farmers for decades

Trevor Abrahams checks on nectarine trees on his farm on Oct. 10, 2011, close to Ceres, South Africa. Abrahams, an emerging farmer, has received mentorship, support, and funding from an established local farmer, to get to the point of having a productive fruit farm. Rodger Bosch/AFP/Getty Images

JOHANNESBURG —South Africa’s parliament will soon begin debate on a measure designed to put more prime farmland in black hands, in a renewed bid to change the racial imbalance in land ownership that’s a legacy of colonial rule.

The bill, in its current form, will allow the state to expropriate land owned by whites without compensating them, but only under very specific conditions.