President Cyril Ramaphosa may have scored a major own goal for South Africa after praising Zimbabwe’s land reform programme, a policy widely viewed as disastrous for the Zim economy. His comments, made during the official opening of the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show in Harare on Friday, 29 August 2025, have drawn sharp criticism and could raise fears among investors about the direction of land reform in South Africa. In his address, Ramaphosa framed Zimbabwe’s land seizures in the early 2000s as part of a necessary process of correcting historical injustices. “On independence in 1980, the new democratic government of Zimbabwe had to take on the momentous task of dismantling colonial-era patterns of land ownership,” he said.
Sam Busa