The African Continental Free Trade area was initiated by African leaders in 2018 to open trade amongst the continent’s 55 countries. By 2021 thirty countries – South Africa included - had already ratified the trade agreement. The aim of this review was to assess - through a literature review - the readiness of South African emerging farmers who are beneficiaries of the country’s land reform programme - to benefit from opportunities presented by the AfCFTA considering its past subjugation under various discriminatory legislative frameworks. The review highlighted massive land dispossession and productive skills deprivation under colonial and apartheid rule that culminated in the congestion of Black people into ethnic homelands, thus removing them from mainstream economic activities. The ushering in of a democratic state in 1994 that sought to tackle the inequality through land redistributive mechanisms did not address the plight of the poor. Cooperative settlement and production on large, restored land holdings rather than on family farms led to infighting, mismanagement and general rundown of once productive farms . As opportunities for participation into AfCFTA activities exist, the review recommends restructuring of the emerging farming sector especially the subdivision of CPA landholdings into family farms . The latter would not only increase farm productivity but also ensure effective participation in local and international trade .