Posted on 08/12/2006 10:56:09 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
South Africa has told white farmers it may seize their properties under the land restitution program if they fail to agree on a selling price within six months.
The program aims to hand back land or offer financial compensation to black people who were forcibly removed from their ancestral homes under apartheid.
It is part of efforts to correct skewed land ownership created under white minority rule.
President Thabo Mbeki's Government wants 30 per cent of farm land in black hands by 2014.
But the transfer process has been slow, with only around 4 per cent of land transferred by the restitution program so far.
Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana says wrangling with white land-owners over prices is one of the main reasons for the low turnover.
She has given them a strong warning.
"We are now going to negotiate six months - no more, no less," she said.
"Indeed, we don't have time to be talking and talking for 10 years... because already our people have been waiting."
"We will no longer waste time negotiating with people who are not committed to transformation."
South Africa has been quick to dismiss comparisons with neighbouring Zimbabwe, where a similar campaign was frequently marked by violence.
It has vowed to take a more orderly approach to addressing its apartheid and British colonial legacy.
Ms Xingwana's department has already identified several properties that will be taken over if it cannot reach agreement over prices with the owners, but it is the first time the Government has set a time limit on such talks.
Officials have stressed land will only be seized as a last resort and farmers have the right to appeal against the decision in court.
Land claims are an especially emotive part of the post-apartheid reforms, as they often bring white families who have lived on the land for generations up against black people whose historical ties to the land run even deeper.
So far, 89 per cent of the nearly 80,000 claims that were lodged by the December 1998 cut-off date have been settled.
The Government has set a 2008 deadline to finish the process.
Sounds like Mbeki wants to do for South Africa what Mugabe has done for Zimbabwe.
Next up: Starvation.
How long have the whites owned this land? What were the circumstances of its original seizure?
This stuff is nuts.
Hawaii is doing the same thing.
I'm under the impression they've tried, but can't.
Sounds like it's been a while for many of them. If it's happened in the last two generations, the land should be given back. Otherwise, tell them to go pound sand.
Zimbabwe all over again. Eventually, the rest of the world will again be burdened by the failed economics and outrageous actions by idiots ruling Zimbabwe and South Africa.
South Africa is the one state on the continent that has a chance to move into the modern world, but if the government starts down the road of expropriation or forced sale, the country will forfeit this chance.
South Africa is going to try the Zimbabwe model?
Doesn't Gary Player still live there?
It will be very interesting to see how this plays out.
Reparations...coming to a country near you.
The white colonists stole that land fair and square.
And once they had established a farming operation, the land was FAR more productive than ever it was under native tribal management.
The same with the mining, and the infrastructure for marketing which led to urban development. There was a CONSIDERABLE amount of "value-added" to the land base once the location was occupied by the ancestors of the white tribe in South Africa.
And now in the name of "equality", it shall be taken away and all the "value-added" will be scattered to the winds, as the now productive land is permitted to revert to bush.
Maybe the wild game that once abounded in South Africa will return as well.
Hah. THREE chances that will ever happen.
Fat, slim and zilch.
This is just pure BS, watch the import/export ratios in the next few years drop like a stone, or about 1/3 when this gets done.
Personally if my land was going to be repatriated and I lived in South Africa I would start a Lion breeding program on my farm. Once I was gone and nobody was feeding them the new owners wouldn't last too long.
Also, this "transformation" sounds like a bureaucratic nightmare.
How do they decide which blacks will be rewarded with property, which whites will give it up? I've got to believe that what's really happening is that the state is going to end up operating and owning the farms. If only because the whole process is impossible without the use of totalitarian methods.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.