SOUTH Africa's land reform programme is in dire straits and there is no chance of reaching a 2008 deadline to complete the restitution process, said a report released by a think tank.
The gloomy report issued by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) said the country's agriculture was under serious threat from the struggling land reform strategy.
"The future of South African commercial agriculture is now on the table," said CDE executive director Ann Bernstein in a statement.
"The economic viability of many rural regions of the country is under threat, which could lead to serious negative consequences for the broader economy and society."
At the onset of democracy in 1994, some 87 percent of agricultural land in the country was owned by whites, who make up less than 10 percent of the population.
Thirteen years later only four percent of land, or four million hectares (nearly 10 million acres), had been transferred to blacks, said the CDE.
Land reform was taking place "far too slowly" to reach the target of 30 percent -- 25 million hectares -- by 2014, it added.
The land restitution programme focuses on returning land to blacks that was seized by whites after 1913.
There is "absolutely no prospect" of meeting a 2008 deadline for completing all land restitution claims, the report said.
Land restitution was seriously bogged down in its last phase as the biggest rural claims -- involving thousands of people -- had led to "large swathes of productive land being placed under claim and therefore effectively frozen for years to come."
The sugar and timber industries were particularly under pressure.
At least 50 percent of land reform projects had been abject failures, with beneficiaries worse off after land reform due to a lack of post-settlement support from government, said the CDE.
It also warned that South Africa could go down the same path as its neighbour Zimbabwe, where white farmers were forced off their land, if land policy reform was based on racially tinged assumptions about what was holding the process back.
AFP
READER OPINIONS
emmie • etpliz@hotmail.com Subject: No please Fri, 09 May 2008 09:23:10 • whilst i agree with land redistribution, i humbly ask u not to do it the ZIMBABWE--ZANU PF WAY!!!!!.
Land to those who can use it. if the white are producing for the whole country as they are now WHATS THE PROBLEM. In zim black farmers got the land and there is starvation and hunger.There is poverty. there is noone in south africa who goes on an empty stomach. thats what we want. PLEASE PLEASE THINK AND LOOK BEFORE YOU EMBARK ON SOME OF THESE PROGRAMS.
dont fall into zim's situation, pliz
Heartbroken African-Zimbabwean black woman in Tasmania, Australia
mike • brutushita@yahoo.com Subject: true Thu, 08 May 2008 08:31:34 • I agree with you 100% Omugabe.
in 2008, no white should ever occupy blacks land without express permission from an afro-centric government in place.
Omugabe • dziva@sanandresano.com Subject: Africa for Africans -- LOOK INWARD & 'LOOK EAST' ZIM PATRIOTS Wed, 07 May 2008 18:29:28 • Now, that is the kind of URGENT issue that should be occupying Mbeki, Zuma & ANC - Repatriation from European thieves, African Land, African Wealth & African Resources!
African so-called 'land reform' MUST FAIL when dealing with thieves; because European thieves are like snakes or crocodiles: Once they grab a hold of African loot, they CANNOT voluntarily let go!
And so, as with the snakes and crocodiles, those who continue to hold onto African loot MUST be 'hit on the head' FIRMLY for them to let go of African Lands, Wealth & Resources.
So-called 'willing seller' 'willing buyer' is just another piece of eurocentric DECEPTION!
ZANU-PF recoginze the above fact and toss out the childish idea.
South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, etc need to quickly follow suit; so that Africans can begin on the path to Self-determination, Self-development, Self-sufficiency & Self-reliance.
As long as African Lands, Wealth & Resources are in the hands of Europeans thieves, then Africans WILL ALWAYS be servants/slaves in their own African homeland, and renters on their own African ancestral lands.
BODIDILEE, BULAWAYO • na Subject: HEAD NORTH... SAID CECIL JOHN RHODES! Wed, 07 May 2008 15:41:33 • Soweto now eh?
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