Is the government deliberately stalling on land reform in order to keep a trump card in hand for tough times ahead?  

It was Frederik van Zyl Slabbert who made the sobering remark some time ago that the ruling ANC’s true commitment to democracy would only be tested once there was a threat that they might be voted out of office. It was this test that our region’s great liberation icon of two decades ago, Robert Mugabe, failed so miserably after his people voted against him in a referendum in 2000.