This chapter concerns the role of youth in rural development and land reform in South Africa. I argue in this chapter that reducing poverty and generating employment through land reform can be achieved only if such reforms capitalise on all the resources in society, including the involvement and commitment of all stakeholders: men and women, adults and the youth. The role of the youth in development is especially critical. The World Youth Report of 2005 (United Nations 2005) emphasises that development with a youth focus is important not only for the future of development but also to mitigate the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Growing up in a globalising world, the youth of today are able to use and employ new technologies. Theirs is a generation that is relatively well educated as regards information and communication technologies. However, there are many young people, particularly in the South, who lack the economic power to benefit from the opportunities that the contemporary world offers in this respect. Development, therefore, has to be seen as a process of negotiation between groups and generations over accessing, distributing and using resources for livelihood enhancement.

Surprisingly, generational issues and relationships between the older and younger generations are not considered in many land and agrarian studies. The youth is absent in most analyses of land reform processes. Where there is a focus on the socially differentiated impact of land and agrarian reform, the predominant focus is on income groups (Aliber 2011; Seekings and Nattrass 2006) or class (Bond 2000; Cousins 2011; Lahiff 2007). Gender has also received a great deal of attention (see, for instance, chapter 13, this volume; Walker 2005).

This chapter's contribution to the land reform debate is the problematisation of the relationship between the youth and land as a resource, and the factors that advance or inhibit the participation of the youth in the South African land reform programme. Little is known about why young people rarely engage in land reform projects. The majority of land reform beneficiaries in South Africa are older people whose livelihoods combine land ownership and old age pensions. This raises questions about the future of land reform.