Land Reform Policy Itself a Stumbling Block to Successful Redistribution in South Africa
THE WEEKEND ESSAY: By Wandile Sihlobo and Professor Johann Kirsten One key observation from the political discourse over land reform is that beyond the broad objective of what it seeks to achieve, the more specific problems around how to execute its implementation are...US Farms Don’t Need a Trade War at this Time
A lot has been said about the US-China trade dispute and its potential impact on American farming communities and the country’s agricultural economy. Yesterday, my good friend, Michael ‘Mike’ McDougall at ED&F Man Capital Markets in New York, introduced an...African Governments Must Effectively Implement the Trade Agreements
By Mmatlou Kalaba and Wandile Sihlobo One of the most prolific messages from the Nelson Mandela centenary lecture presented by Professor Patrick Lumumba was that Tata Madiba would have asked why do African countries consume what they don’t produce, and produce what...Eastern Cape’s Agricultural Economic Possibilities
Tonight (July 25) I am flying back from East London to Johannesburg after a day visit. The Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform helped organise a session to explore a couple of ideas and initiatives that could drive agricultural growth and...Large Grain Supplies Help Bring Some Relief to Consumers
I got someone to do a bit of a ‘facelift’ in this blog so it could look a bit cooler and modern, so I stayed offline to allow them to do the design stuff with minimal interruptions. The process, however, seems to be taking a bit longer than I anticipated. And, there...Pseudo Trade Negotiations Involving Ordinary Folk
There are evident concerns within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and also The European Union (EU)-SADC trade relations. This became clear in a panel discussion I facilitated on 18 July 2018 at Farmers Weekly Agribusiness Africa Conference in...
Wandile Sihlobo is the Chief Economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa (Agbiz) and the author of “Finding Common Ground: Land, Equity and Agriculture“.
He is a Senior Lecturer Extraordinary at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wits School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand.
Sihlobo was appointed as a member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council in 2019 (and re-appointed in 2022), having served on the Presidential Expert Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture from 2018.
He is also a member of the Council of Statistics of South Africa (Stats SA) and a Commissioner at the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC).
Sihlobo is a columnist for Business Day, The Herald and Farmers Weekly magazine.
His weekly podcast, “Agricultural Market Viewpoint with Wandile Sihlobo“, is available on all podcast platforms.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Fort Hare and a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from Stellenbosch University.