As South Africans look ahead to a new presidential term, the issue of the country's land and who rightfully owns it has been a key election topic. Land reform is a complex mix of issues, centering on how to redress the effects of colonial rule in a region where land ownership and agricultural production is often a mainstay of survival.

South Africans aren't alone in their need to further define how land reform fits into the political spectrum. Other countries in southern Africa with a history of colonization, specifically Zimbabwe and Namibia, have also been revisiting their stances on the land issue, albeit with different approaches.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has taken the most controversial path, authorizing the forcible takeover of nearly all of the country's white-owned farms -- a move that has led to considerable political and economic chaos.

But for a country like South Africa -- considered a leader on the African continent -- and one like Namibia -- one of the region's most stable presences -- balancing sensitive political land reform decisions with the need to right historical wrongs is a complicated challenge.

South Africa
South African land politics are entwined with the country's controversial domestic policies of the past. The legacy of racial injustices in the country, epitomized in the white supremacist policies of apartheid adopted in the late 1940s, prevented many native Africans from owning land in white farming areas and also prohibited white farmers from leasing land to black tenants.

In addition, the Land Act of 1913 prevented most blacks from buying land outside of specified reserves.

When all remaining apartheid laws were finally repealed in 1991, the country had to define a new political framework and constitution. New leaders emerged from the political movements who took a lead role in the liberation movement, including the African National Congress.

Thabo Mbeki assumed leadership of the ANC party after Nelson Mandela stepped down as the party's president in 1997. Mbeki went on to win South Africa's presidency in 1999.

Mbeki, who has sought to be a representative for Africa and its interests on the global stage, has borne the challenge of guiding South Africa through its fledgling years of open democracy.

The debate in the run-up to the 2004 presidential poll considers whether South Africans' lives have improved under the ANC-run government. The government's stance in the land reform debate, while not the top political issue, has played a growing role.

The ANC promised to make land reform a key priority in 1994, and has redistributed some 1.8 million hectares of land and settled over half of all land redistribution claims, according to a March 2004 party statement.

There are three main tenets in South Africa's land policy -- redistribution, land restitution and land tenure reform. The Mbeki government currently plans to redistribute 30 percent of commercial farmland currently owned by white farmers to landless blacks by 2015.

"Lest we forget, land reform was -- and remains -- one of the most onerous challenges facing post-apartheid South Africa. ... This process has involved engaging with a variety of stakeholders to build a broader buy-in on the noble vision of land reform in South Africa," Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza said in a recent budget speech, according to a U.N. report.

Other groups such as the Landless People's Movement have aimed to push the land reform issue to the forefront of the political agenda. The group, which calls itself an independent, grassroots national movement of the landless, has threatened to start its own land invasions if the government doesn't speed up the process.

Some political leaders have questioned the motives of groups like LPM, accusing them of trying to gain from the frustrations of landless people.

"It has created a great deal of frustration that irresponsible organizations such as the Landless People's Movement are trying to exploit," Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon, considered Mbeki's top opposition, said in late March, according to South Africa's News24.

In the bigger picture, land reform has important competition among other key domestic political issues in South Africa. High unemployment rates and a severe epidemic of HIV and AIDS pose serious and immediate concerns for the government.

But the divisive land seizures in neighboring Zimbabwe have increased pressure on South African leaders to make visible progress in their own land redistribution program. Political leaders have been hesitant to directly condemn the actions of Zimbabwe's President Mugabe, who many in the public view as a radical trailblazer for the rights of the black and landless.

"There is a kind of emotional, gut-level reaction among South Africans that Mugabe is doing the right thing," Ben Cousins, a professor at the University of the Western Cape in Bellville, told The New York Times in January.

While Mbeki is expected to easily win reelection, there are signs that South Africans are questioning the country's direction and political system.

In a recent poll published in The Washington Post, some 68 percent of those surveyed said they felt the ANC has too much power. They ranked unemployment, crime and HIV/AIDS as some of the top problems the government should be addressing.

Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has been labeled as both a reckless maverick and a groundbreaker for his divisive stance on land redistribution. As in other countries in the region, land inequalities in Zimbabwe are rooted in a colonial past, in this case with the United Kingdom.

One of the key turning points in the land issue occurred in 1965, when a white minority government declared its independence from Britain and white leaders seized the majority of the most fertile farming land.

After Zimbabwe gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1980, the British government earmarked a fund to help the new government buy back land from white farmers. The program ended in 1988 amid charges that the land was being distributed to government officials and the well-connected, instead of poor, landless blacks.

"This was a turning point," Sam Moyo, director of the Southern African Regional Institute for Policy Studies, told the Christian Science Monitor in 2002. "The government of Zimbabwe just turned around and said: 'Fine. We will do it our way.'"

Mugabe became Zimbabwe's first elected president in 1980 and took a decidedly more extreme position on the land issue than some of his neighboring counterparts.

His party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front or ZANU-PF, has held considerable political power since the country became independent.

Immediately upon that first election, Mugabe promised to redistribute white land to landless blacks. But progress was slow and nearly two decades later whites still owned some 70 percent of the most fertile land.

In 1999, Mugabe formed a commission to rewrite portions of the country's constitution but the changes were defeated in a national referendum vote. In 2000, the government launched its fast-track program that permitted officials to seize white owned land for redistribution to an estimated 300,000 settlers and some 30,000 black commercial farm workers.

The plan has been known as the "Third Chimurenga" or liberation struggle and the "jambanja" or direct action.

The backlash from Mugabe's fast track land policies was drastic. Since March 2000, agricultural output has severely dropped and violent clashes have ensued between government supporters and white farmers.

Nearly all of the 4,000 white farmers who own portions of Zimbabwe's best agricultural land have had their farms listed for seizure.

But some of the most maligned players have been the farm workers who have borne the brunt of the loss of work and the lack of a strong political voice.

"Farm invasions sought to discourage political participation by farm workers. They were subjected to intimidation and violence, and were deliberately marginalized as a group in land resettlement," said a report by a farm workers non-governmental organization, the Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe, as cited in a recent U.N. report.

The larger political picture becomes more difficult to assess in the face of limited media access to the country. The state controls most media outlets and the government does not usually grant visas to foreign journalists.

But Mugabe maintains a strong following in some sectors, particularly among war veterans who participated along with the leader in the battles for independence in 1970s and have threatened in past years to go back to war if ZANU-PF loses support, according to a 2000 BBC report.

Recently, the politics of food, land ownership and international food aid have intersected. More than two years of severe drought and bad harvests have led to a humanitarian crisis in some parts of Zimbabwe with international agencies attempting to feed more than 6 million people -- more than half the country's population.

Of some 4,500 confiscated farms, only a couple hundred are fully functioning and harvest of food staples has dropped by some 90 percent, according to a December article in the Wall Street Journal.

"Zimbabwe stands alone as how one person can ruin a country," Tony Hall, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, told the newspaper, saying Mugabe has "committed crimes against humanity."

The government has stirred further controversy by using both food aid and land to reward those loyal to the ZANU-PF party. Foreign media outlets have reported that those with a membership card to the party are more likely to receive food assistance than those without.

Mugabe himself has been roundly criticized in the international community for his apparent compliance in politicizing food aid. The U.S. and European governments have placed travel and financial sanctions against him, and his government has been criticized by human rights organizations.

But Mugabe stands firm in his actions and defiance to Western influence. He defended his plan during an address to a party conference in December.

"Our people are overjoyed, the land is ours," he said, according to an account in the Wall Street Journal. "We are now the rulers and owners of Zimbabwe."

Mugabe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has voiced concerns over his handling of the land situation and how his controversial actions have weakened the government's standing. White farmers have publicly backed the party.

"The MDC deplores the manner in which the president has sanctioned the land invasions," the group said in a statement on its Web site.

"The recent government-orchestrated land invasions by ex-combatants have done nothing to improve the conditions for an organized, economically viable land reform program," says the group. "On the contrary, this development is a short-term political response to a cumulative loss of legitimacy by the Zimbabwean government."

Namibia
In the shadow of larger players South Africa and Zimbabwe, the small country of Namibia has tried to strike a middle ground in the land reform issue. Germany colonized the country, which South Africa later annexed. Namibia gained independence in 1990.

President Sam Nujoma, the country's first and only president since independence, also leads the ruling South West African People's Organization party, a key player in the struggle against South African rule in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Nujoma has served for three consecutive terms and is generally popular leader, particularly in the north.

His approach to land reform has been characterized by a spirit of reconciliation with white farmers, although most observers agree that he has kept a careful eye on Zimbabwean President Mugabe -- considered an ally of Nujoma -- and how other countries might influence Namibia’s situation.

The government has stuck to a "willing seller, willing buyer" approach to the land reform issue for more than a decade and progress has been slow at best.

As in neighboring countries, one black farmer's union in Namibia has made threats to embark on its own land invasions if the government can't pick up the pace.

Namibian officials have said that it will only operate within the letter of the law in land expropriation and will not forcibly invade farms without proper cause.

President Nujoma said recently that there was no turning back on the land issue, despite fears of the chaos that has gripped Zimbabwe.

"The government has now decided to exercise its discretion to implement this measure (land expropriation) within the framework of our constitution and other relevant laws," Nujoma said at a recent independence anniversary celebration.

Despite his initial indications that he would not stand for a fourth term as president, Nujoma has said recently that if his people want him to stay in office, he would consider doing so.

"One cannot ignore the call by the people, because the people are the ones who make the final decision," he told Reuters.

As in South Africa, unemployment and poverty are key domestic issues in Namibian politics. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is also a major national concern.

The Nujoma government has purchased some 130 farms since independence and is seeking ways to increase its annual budget in order to negotiate more land sales.

According to Frans Kayumbu Tsheehama, Namibia's permanent secretary for the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, his agency needs to buy about 9 million hectares of land in order to assist some 240,000 landless people. The government has also said that its focus is on those with "excessive" amounts of land -- these are often absentee owners who only use the land occasionally to hunt or for other recreation.

-- By Maureen Hoch, Online NewsHour