Land ownership significantly up for disadvantaged people
Research by Agri Development Solutions in conjunction with AgriSA and Landbouweekblad has found that previously disadvantaged groups now own close to 27% of all farmland in SA, significantly more than the 14% they owned in 1994.
The research, published on Wednesday, showed that white farmers now own 73.3% of all farmland compared to 85.1% they owned in 1994.
The government has been under a lot of pressure to conclude a comprehensive land audit to reflect an accurate record of all public agricultural land and to enable an assessment of the performance of its land-reform programme.
Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti has said that phase two of the land-audit report would be processed by the Cabinet and released to the public before year-end.
Meanwhile, groups including AgriSA have launched their own investigation into land ownership patterns in the country.
AgriSA contributed R1m towards the purchase and processing of deeds office data for the period 1994 to 2010.
The audit revealed that the supply-and-demand mechanism — or willing seller and willing buyer principle — does work to bring about successful land reform, it said.
“AgriSA has long been aware of the need for a land audit. Policy formulation is driven by emotion and perception, rather than facts. Since 2005, nothing has come of the many attempts to facilitate a thorough land audit. Nkwinti will apparently soon be releasing the results of the government’s land audit,” AgriSA said on Wednesday.
Agri Development Solutions processed the deeds office data in a scientific manner, it said.
The outcome is a database that indicates the amount of agricultural land purchased and sold, as well as who the buyers were and what they had paid, between 1995 and 2016.
AgriSA also commissioned an external audit to be conducted by auditing firm Nkonki.
The research considered the value of land and found that 29% of it was now in the hands of the previously disadvantaged. In some provinces up to 50% of the value of agricultural land was now owned by the previously disadvantaged, AgriSA said.
Dan Kriek, AgriSA’s president, said on Wednesday that land policy in SA was based on perceptions and emotion instead of facts.
“Sound, sustainable policy formulation must be based on facts. This land audit now provides these facts.
“Further research will be conducted to determine which types of land reform projects are sustainable and which types fail,” Kriek said.
The government’s first land audit showed that about 14% of land was owned by the state and more than 79% was owned by individuals, mainly whites, companies and trusts.
The inadequacy of reform since 1994 has prompted calls for the Constitution to be changed for land to be expropriated without compensation.
THE GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN UNDER PRESSURE TO DO A COMPREHENSIVE LAND AUDIT FURTHER RESEARCH WILL BE DONE TO DETERMINE WHICH TYPES OF PROJECTS ARE SUSTAINABLE