‘Unused land’ will be expropriated

REFORM: PLAN TO GIVE TITLE DEEDS IN EX-HOMELANDS

AgriSA says much land in former homelands is ‘prime for agriculture’.

The plan to expropriate land without compensation to redress racial disparities in land ownership would target mainly unused land, a senior ANC official said yesterday.

As part of long-promised reforms, the ANC in December adopted a resolution to expropriate land without compensation for redistribution to landless blacks, provided it was done in a manner that did not threaten food security or economic growth.

Moves towards land expropriation have worried markets and economists and farming groups have warned of a potentially devastating impact on the agricultural sector. But David Masondo, a member of the ANC’s economic transformation committee, said the aim of the resolution was not to target “all land productively utilised ... but use it or lose it, even if you are black”.

“That includes vacant land, unused land and land used for speculative purposes,” he said.

The ANC has been fleshing out the resolution, using its majority in parliament to back a motion last week seeking to change the constitution to allow land expropriation without compensation. It then instructed a committee to review the constitution and report back to it by August 30.

Masondo also said the ANC was mulling reforms that would provide title deeds for the estimated 17 million people in former homelands. He said the ANC would be discussing this in workshops.

Land use in these poor, rural areas remains communal and controlled by traditional leaders, who are likely to resist such changes. They also comprise a key ANC political base. President Cyril Ramaphosa said last week he was aiming to resolve the land issue “once and for all”, but stressed the process would be orderly and food production and security must be preserved.

AfriForum said foreign investments in SA would not be safe should land expropriation without compensation go ahead. The farm loan book is estimated at about R160 billion and there are concerns farmers could default or stop investing in their land.

The government said 72% of private land was in white hands and only 4% was owned by blacks, with other racial groups accounting for the rest. The ANC also said it missed a 2014 target to transfer 30% of farmland to blacks under a willing-seller, willing-buyer model, with only 8% transferred.

But AgriSA chief executive Omri van Zyl disputed this, saying about 27% of agricultural land was in black hands, including farmland owned by the state and plots tilled by subsistence farmers in the homelands. He said much of the land in the former homelands was “prime for agriculture”, but was underutilised and its commercial potential was not being unlocked.