Biodiversity is widely known to be a crucial measure of an ecosystem’s ability to adapt and recover from various disturbances. Farming practices, such as the cultivation of monocultures, are known to disrupt these ecosystems, altering the landscape and the associated biodiversity. It has thus become crucial to focus on restoration treatments to combat this biodiversity loss. Studying diversity levels in old fields allows us to identify the patterns and functions of these organisms, which can help regulate and conserve biodiversity, specifically in the agricultural sector. The main aim of this study was to assess the pace of natural recovery for a chronosequence of formerly planted fields in a grassland habitat in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The plant communities were evaluated using species counts, while the bacterial communities were assessed through high-throughput sequencing (HTS) of the 16S rRNA gene. The alpha diversity indices indicated that the diversity levels within the old fields have started to resemble natural conditions for both the plant and microbial communities. Furthermore, the NMDS analyses identified clear variations in bacterial and plant community compositions among differently aged successional groups and the natural habitats. This study provides evidence that biodiversity levels within crop fields can recover from agricultural disturbances. However, considering the significant changes in climate and rainfall patterns in the study area, it remains unclear whether the community structures of the crop fields will reach native conditions in the coming decades, if at all.