africawinsagain...
Posted on 03/06/2008 10:24:41 AM PST by Tailgunner Joe
CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa's cabinet has approved a bill that would speed up its land reform programme aimed at transferring 30 percent of farmland to black ownership by 2014, a government spokesman said on Thursday.
An existing land expropriation act has failed to make significant inroads into land redistribution.
The government says a willing-buyer willing-seller arrangement with farmers has failed. White farmers are hesitant to sell their prime land at reduced market prices.
"It's approved as of yesterday," government spokesman Themba Maseko told Reuters.
The bill now needs parliamentary approval.
The government set itself a target of handing 30 percent of all agricultural land to the black majority by 2014 but it is only just approaching 4 percent of that target and says it needs to accelerate the process.
To do so, authorities have gradually embarked on seizures to return land to blacks whose land was forcibly taken under previous governments. Officials have stuck by the 2014 target, as land activists grow increasingly impatient.
"The transformation we are pursuing is not intended to negatively affect farming, but to strengthen it, expand it and make it more sustainable," Jacob Zuma, leader of the ruling ANC, said in a speech to South African grain farmers on Thursday.
CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
The bill calls for the state to take reasonable legislative and other measures to enable citizens to gain access to land on an equitable basis.
"Expropriation must be regulated by constitutional rights to administrative action that is lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair," reads part of a supplementary note on the bill Maseko presented after the briefing.
Officials say whites, who still dominate farming more than a decade after the end of apartheid, have stalled the programme by demanding excessive prices.
White farmers say the step is too drastic and blame bureaucratic shortcomings for slow progress.
Land seizures occur only as restitution -- where those who were evicted from ancestral land under apartheid and British colonial rule have applied to have it returned or receive cash as compensation for the loss.
Otherwise, the government hopes to achieve its 30 percent goal by encouraging the black majority to apply for loans to buy farms.
Farmers whose land has either been bought or claimed by the South African government in the land reform process are moving to Mozambique, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Namibia, where their expertise is being welcomed with open arms.
This is contained in a report released this week. The report is based on a round- table discussion on land reform hosted by the Centre for Development and Enterprise last year and facilitated by local development specialist Jeff McCarthy.
AgriSA president Lourie Bosman said while there were no official figures of how many farmers were moving to neighbouring states, at least 35 000 out of 60 000 farmers in total had left the country since 1996.
"I can't tell you how many of those are now in countries such as Mozambique or Zambia, but what I can tell you is they're being welcomed with open arms.
"We are regularly receiving government delegations from those countries who are looking for farmers to invest in building their agriculture sectors.
"The land reform process is not working. The government is using taxpayers' money to take out farmers who are both productive and profitable, and replacing them with people who have little or no knowledge of agriculture. It's not rocket science to see that within a very short time South Africa is going to face a huge food crisis."
Following the the Golden Path of Zimbabwe, I see.................
Bush's fault? The Mugabe doctrine.....socialists and communists are deadly...a hazard to societies in any country.... Up next, USA.....
africawinsagain...
How about that.
Does the SA govt not see what happened in Zimbabwe? Or do they think that Mugabe had a great idea, but that the evil British thwarted him? Either way, they are a very special kind of asshat.
From this article and a post I letter I read about SA posted here yesterday it looks like the Zimbabwization of SA is occurring. SA first-rate infrastructure, water supply, and electrical system is going to hell too.
Not too future headline: “Famine Strikes South Africa”.
Looks like South Africa is about to experience several years of drought. Global warming related, no doubt.
>>Not too future headline: “Famine Strikes South Africa”.
If Zimbabwe is any measure, the headline will be “Drought Strikes South Africa”.
Next Headline: “S. Africa Requests Food/Cash Aid from U.S. Taxpayers; Bono Endorses Request.”
I sincerely wonder when Africa is going to grow up and let colonialism go.
On the road to destruction, and honking to pass.
"I can't tell you how many of those are now in countries such as Mozambique or Zambia, but what I can tell you is they're being welcomed with open arms.
When Mugabe took over Zimbabwe, the ruler of Mozambique told him, "Keep your whites". He didn't, and look what happened.
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