The minister of land reform and rural development is a minister in the

Cabinet of South Africa The Cabinet of South Africa is the most senior level of the executive branch of the Government of South Africa. It is made up of the president, the deputy president, and the ministers. Overview The cabinet of South Africa consists of the Presi ...

. The office was established as the minister of rural development and land reform in May 2009, though it was subsequently merged with the

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

portfolio under the

minister of agriculture, land reform and rural development The minister of agriculture, land reform and rural development was a Minister (government), minister of the Cabinet of South Africa, with political executive responsibility for agriculture in South Africa, agriculture, Land reform in South Afri ...

from 2019 to 2024. The same portfolio was previously the provenance of the minister of land affairs. Before President

Jacob Zuma Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan names Nxamalala and Msholozi. Zuma was a for ...

appointed the first minister of

rural development Rural development is the process of improving the quality of life, quality of life and economic well-being of people living in rural areas, often relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas. Often, rural regions have experienced rural povert ...

and Land Reform in May 2009, land affairs were conjoined with agriculture under the minister of agriculture and land affairs between 1996 and 2009. The minister has political responsibility for the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development. The incumbent minister is

Mzwanele Nyhontso Mzwanele Nyhontso (born 8 September 1973) is a South African politician who is the president of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, and a member of the National Assembly of South Africa. Since July 2024 he is the Minister of Land Reform and R ...

, who is the first opposition politician to hold the office; he was appointed on 30 June 2024.

Post-apartheid history

The land affairs portfolio existed in the

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

-era cabinet, and a minister of land affairs, Derek Hanekom, was appointed in President

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

's cabinet in May 1994. However, in a cabinet reshuffle in May 1996, Mandela announced that the portfolio would be subsumed under the Ministry of Agriculture; Hanekom thereby became the minister of agriculture and land affairs. When President

announced his first cabinet on 10 May 2009, he reversed Mandela's merger. The agriculture portfolio was conjoined with forestry and fisheries under the minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and the independent land affairs portfolio was re-launched as the Ministry of Rural Development and Land Reform. The name change reflected an overt focus on

and land reform in South Africa, which Zuma counted among his policy priorities. Indeed, when Zuma announced his second-term cabinet on 24 May 2014, he announced that the ministry would henceforth have two deputy ministers instead of one, in recognition of the importance of rural areas and particularly the former homelands. Appointing his own second cabinet on 29 May 2019, President

Cyril Ramaphosa Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa (born 17 November 1952) is a South African businessman and politician serving as the 5th and current President of South Africa since 2018. A former Anti-Apartheid Movement, anti-apartheid activist and trade union leade ...

announced that the land affairs portfolio would be merged with the agriculture portfolio, as it had been before Zuma's tenure. The Ministry of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development was inaugurated under Minister

Gugile Nkwinti Gugile Ernest Nkwinti (born 18 December 1946) is a South African politician, previously serving in the Cabinet of South Africa as the Minister of Water and Sanitation and before as the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform. Education a ...

, also with two deputy ministers. However, when he announced his third cabinet on 30 June 2024, Ramaphosa reversed the merger, appointing an independent minister of land reform and rural development to serve alongside a minister of agriculture.

List of ministers

References

External links

Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural DevelopmentDepartment of Rural Development and Land Reform
(2019) Government ministers of South Africa

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Lists of political office-holders in South Africa {{SouthAfrica-gov-stub