The government has said that it is its policy and vision to address:

• the racially-based land dispossession of the past
• the need for a more equitable distribution of land ownership
• the need for a kind of land reform that will reduce poverty and create jobs
• security of tenure for all
• a system of land management that will make land available for development, but not harm the environment

To carry out this policy or vision, the government has implemented a land reform programme consisting of three elements:

• Land Restitution to address cases where people lost land after 1913 because of forced removals; the cut-off date for applications for land restitution was December 1998.
• Land Redistribution to give those most in need a chance to get land for housing and productive purposes. It caters for urban and rural areas and includes labour tenants, farm workers and people who want to start farming.
• Land Tenure reform is a process of reviewing all the old land policies and laws in order to improve the tenure security of all South Africans.