‘ANC’s populist stance on land’

The ANC government has now resorted to the populist “land expropriation without compensation” to cover its gaping failure on land reform and how it continues to fail poor black farmers, the DA said yesterday.

As part of a wider programme to meet various stakeholders and industry experts in a bid to address the land question as well as expanding support for emerging black farmers, the DA would meet the Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa, otherwise known as the Land Bank, today, DA spokesperson Thandeka Mbabama said.

The meeting is aimed at establishing the bank’s strategies to increase funding for emerging black farmers and continuous training and support to ensure that they became enterprising farmers.

It was of great concern to the official opposition, the DA, that there had been minimal support for black farmers unable to expand their businesses to create job opportunities due to financial constraints.

Reports that a livestock support programme meant for poor North West farmers was allegedly taken over by Premier Supra Mahumapelo to directly benefit former president Jacob Zuma was but one example of the corruption that had become embedded in land reform, Mbabama said.

“The DA is committed to expanding support for black farmers, especially black female farmers,” she said. “Unfortunately, the ANC is using expropriation without compensation to hide their own failures and decades of gross mismanagement of the land reform process.”

Post settlement funding for emerging farmers was critically important for the DA, as this was one of the biggest impediments to the sustainability of land reform projects.

“In the Western Cape, we leverage approximately R80 million per annum from the private sector to support emerging farmers and we will discuss with the Land Bank how we can grow support for emerging farmers nationally,” Mbabama said. – ANA