Govt to speed up land delivery
30 November 2004
The government intends to redistribute 1.87 million hectares of land per year in order to meet its 2014 target, the Department of Land Affairs said in Pretoria on Tuesday.
This is five times more than the current transfer rate of 350 000 hectares a year.
According to the South African Press Association, the department's deputy director-general, Nozizwe Makgalemele said that 22 million hectares of agricultural land had to be transferred by 2014 in order to meet President Thabo Mbeki's directive that 30 percent of commercial agricultural land was to be held by formerly disadvantaged groups.
Addressing the media, Makgalemele said this rate would be achieved through increased funding that had been made available through "additional agricultural support funds".
"We still have 20.6 million hectares to deliver," Makgalemele said, who insisted that this would be done without disrupting sustainable development gains.
She said the
government's redistribution programme was founded on three pillars, namely redistribution, restitution (which addresses land dispossession since 1913), and tenure reform (intended to ensure legally secure land for all).
Makgalemele said that since 1994, 23 percent of land had been delivered through restitution, 50 percent through various forms of redistribution and 5 percent through the tenure reform system.
In addition, she said, 22 percent of state-owned land had also been re-allocated.
"But contrary to a widely held view, there is not much state land available for land reform purposes, especially for redistribution," she said.
Makgalemele explained that while the state held 24.5 million hectares (20.3 percent) of the total area of South Africa, only between 5 percent and 7 percent (1.7 million hectares) of this was available for land reform.
The rest, she said, was used for state domestic purposes.
Makgalemele said that many challenges lay
ahead which included the high cost of land and some uncooperative sellers.
"But there are some sellers who have been very helpful," she said.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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