Farmers’ unions want an official audit on the amount of agricultural land available in the country and the number of hectares already transferred to black farmers. “How will we know where we stand if we don’t know how much farmland we have?” said TAU SA general manager Bennie van Zyl.
Agri SA’s land committee chairperson Theo de Jager recently said it’s important to remember that the 30% target agreed to at Codesa involves 30% of the land that was in the hands of white farmers in 1994 and not of the total land surface of SA or title deeds transferred. He said it’s unfortunate that there is no instrument to measure the amount of land already transferred. Government says it has transferred between 4,2% and 4,4% through land reform and restitution, but Agri SA estimates that about 8% to 9% has already been transferred with the help of the free market.
During the setting up of the valuations roll it estimated that 70% of the formerly white-owned land in Limpopo’s Blouberg area now belongs to black people. With figures such as these Van Zyl said it could be that SA has already reached the 30% target, but without an audit nobody would know that for sure. Farmers’ unions made it clear that they do not wish to obstruct land reform, but want the restitution process and state reform targets dealt with as quickly and efficiently as possible to ensure they don’t further impact on food security and investor confidence.
Concern for food security and investor confidence is widespread with Motsepe Matlala, president of NAFU, recently declaring that the problem in agriculture was not that ground was given to others, but what the recipients did with the ground. He said agriculture should be based on economic factors rather than on political ideals. Matlala was also worried about the number of SA commercial farmers who have relocated to Mozambique, to the detriment of SA’s agricultural production. – Jasper Raats
