frustration over land reform
19 February 2007

The government was introducing measures aimed at breaking the logjam in land reform, Public Works Minister, Thoko Didiza, told Parliament on Thursday.

Speaking during the Social Cluster briefing, Didiza said there had been frustration at the slow progress in dealing with the 6000 outstanding land claims and some of the measures used to speed up the process are changes to the Expropriation Act and the Special Purpose Vehicle.

Earlier Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya, explained that the SPV would be set to acquire, hold and manage, develop and dispose of land for all reform purposes.

Agriculture minister, Lulu Xingwana, said the SPV would be used to ensure that land expropriated would be maintained in a viable condition until new farmers were able to occupy it. Asked whether the government still adopted the "willing buyer, willing seller" principle, she replied that it was only one of the methods used for redistributing land. However, she said even though the state would use expropriation to acquire land, all exchanges would be fully negotiated.

She referred to the expropriation of a farm near Stellenbosch last week as an example of negotiation. She said the owners were paid R35-million for the farm, for which the owners had demanded R76-million.

Xingwana also told the briefing that she had held a successful meeting with AgriSA, the body representing commercial farming. She denied reports of an acrimonious meeting with the farmers and said it had taken place in good spirits.

The meeting was held after Xingwana was alleged to have said farmers were guilty of abusing their labourers.

She said she had not said all farmers were guilty of abusing their workers, but she said she would not deny that human rights abuses did take place on farms.

"While I am concerned about the killing of farmers, I am also concerned about the lives of farm workers," she said.

Sapa, www.business.iafrica.com