Happy to finally see some action in Land Holdings Bill

I WAS HAPPY to read that the government was not just speaking rhetoric about radical economic transformation. I was happy to learn that the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform’s Minister Gugile Nkwinti published the Regulation of Agricultural Land Holdings Bill on Friday, giving stakeholders until April 16 to submit comments. If promulgated as an act, the law will ban foreigners from buying agricultural land and require them to enter into long-term leases.

It’s now about time that we take our country and its sovereignty serious. Land is a national assets and it needed to be treated as such. According to the bill foreigners selling land would also have to offer the minister “the right of first refusal to acquire ownership of such agricultural land holdings. The bill will see the creation of a Land Commission, which will oversee the collection and dissemination of all information regarding public agricultural land in South Africa.

The nature, extent, trends and impact of land acquisition, land use and investment in the country’s land by foreign persons remains unknown, as no comprehensive database exists. The decade from 1997 to 2007 was characterised by significant shifts in ownership and land use, including increasing acquisition of agricultural properties by foreign nationals in certain regions.

There is also an absence of reliable information regarding the extent of agricultural land holdings owned by South Africans in terms of race and gender as well as the use and size of the land in question. If you own land as such, once the act commences every owner who owns a private agricultural land holding must lodge a duly completed notification of ownership in the prescribed format with the commission within 12 months from the date of the commencement of this act.

In this notification, they will be required to detail the race, gender and nationality of the owner; the size and use of the agricultural land holdings; any real right registered against and licence allocated to the agricultural land holdings; and any other information as may be prescribed. Regarding the redistribution of agricultural land, black people must be offered the right of first refusal. If no black person acquires the redistribution of agricultural land within the prescribed period, such land shall be acquired by the minister within the prescribed period.

If the owner of the agricultural land and the minister are unable to reach an agreement on the purchase price, the minister may, subject to regulating legislation, expropriate the agricultural land in question. Regarding a cap on how much land can be owned, the department said the minister will “determine the categories of ceilings for agricultural land holdings in each district” after the act is in place. TSHEPO DIALE, NKWE ESTATE