SA says R13 billion needed for land claims

PRETORIA – South Africa’s agriculture minister said yesterday 13 billion rand would be needed to resolve outstanding land claims, which would make it difficult for them to be settled by a target of 2005.

“We will need around 13 billion rand to resolve just the restitution,” Thoko Didiza told reporters after a meeting of the country’s Commercial Agriculture Working Group. Most commercial land remains firmly in the hands of minority-white farmers a decade after the end of apartheid rule and land reform is a regarded as vital if a “Zimbabwe scenario” is to be avoided in South Africa.Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has forcibly seized white-owned farms in his country for resdistrubition to poor blacks – a policy critics say has left a once prosperous nation in tatters.South Africa has long asserted its land reform process will be conducted in an orderly and transparent manner.It has two broad planks: to resolve claims by 2005 by communities forcibly removed under white rule, and to give blacks 30 percent of farm land ownership by 2014.”We all agree that resolving land restitution by 2005 is a common objective.We are all committed to see the process finished,” Didiza told reporters.She told Reuters that 56 400 claims out of the total of 79 000 had already been settled at a cost of around one billion rand.The remaining number of claims, although smaller, was more costly and problematic because most were rural claims on farm land where there had been a lot of investment.But she acknowledged that cost was a restraint that would make it difficult for the goal to be reached.She said she expected Finance Minister Trevor Manuel to raise the issue in next week’s medium-term budget policy outlook.- Nampa-ReutersMost commercial land remains firmly in the hands of minority-white farmers a decade after the end of apartheid rule and land reform is a regarded as vital if a “Zimbabwe scenario” is to be avoided in South Africa.Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has forcibly seized white-owned farms in his country for resdistrubition to poor blacks – a policy critics say has left a once prosperous nation in tatters.South Africa has long asserted its land reform process will be conducted in an orderly and transparent manner.It has two broad planks: to resolve claims by 2005 by communities forcibly removed under white rule, and to give blacks 30 percent of farm land ownership by 2014.”We all agree that resolving land restitution by 2005 is a common objective.We are all committed to see the process finished,” Didiza told reporters.She told Reuters that 56 400 claims out of the total of 79 000 had already been settled at a cost of around one billion rand.The remaining number of claims, although smaller, was more costly and problematic because most were rural claims on farm land where there had been a lot of investment.But she acknowledged that cost was a restraint that would make it difficult for the goal to be reached.She said she expected Finance Minister Trevor Manuel to raise the issue in next week’s medium-term budget policy outlook.- Nampa-Reuters