Land distribution without tenure almost worthless

Distributing land or houses without tenure was providing a settlement with no capital value, according to political analyst Mpumelelo Mkhabela.

Land distribution without tenure almost worthless
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Speaking at the Nation in Conversation dialogue at the recent Nampo Harvest Day event in the Free State, Mkhabela said that dire poverty was driving the land issue.

Moreover, it had resulted in a marked decline in the popularity of politicians, driving them to use land reform to redeem themselves.

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“This is exactly what happened in Zimbabwe. The moment Robert Mugabe’s esteem went down, the land grabs began in an effort to regain popularity,” he said.

Dr John Purchase, Agbiz CEO, said that South Africa needed to make peace with the fact that land reform was a failure. The time had come to ascertain how it had gone wrong, and to re-evaluate the entire process.

“Business will have to take the lead. We can’t sit and wait for a crisis to happen. We must act proactively,” he said.

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Annelie Coleman represents Farmer’s Weekly in the Free State, North West and Northern Cape. Agriculture is in her blood. She grew up on a maize farm in the Wesselsbron district where her brother is still continuing with the family business. Annelie is passionate about the area she works in and calls it ‘God’s own country’. She’s particularly interested in beef cattle farming, especially with the indigenous African breeds. She’s an avid reader and owns a comprehensive collection of Africana covering hunting in colonial Africa, missionary history of same period, as well as Rhodesian literature.