Big push to redistribute land to black farmers

• Thoko Didiza unveils plan to lease 700,000ha with options to buy • Training compulsory for all beneficiaries

The government has announced plans to lease 700,000ha of the farmland it acquired to black farmers across the country in what will be a significant acceleration of its land-reform programme.

Agriculture, land reform & rural development minister Thoko Didiza said at a media briefing in Pretoria on Thursday that the 896 farms spanned all provinces, except for Gauteng and the Western Cape.

The farmers would be given 30-year leasehold with options to buy.

Should all the farms be leased, it will constitute a significant speeding up of land reform, which has slowed down to less than 100,000ha a year in recent years.

From 1994 to 2019, the government acquired and redistributed 4.8-million hectares to emerging black farmers and another 3.5-million hectares for purposes of land restitution.

Land redistribution to black farmers has thus taken place at a rate of 192,000ha a year.

But the government is far behind on its own target to redistribute 30% of agricultural farmland by 2014.

Over the past 25 years, 10.2% of agricultural farmland has been transferred to beneficiaries. The allocation of farms for land reform has been controversial with documented evidence by University of Western Cape researchers showing that more than half of the beneficiaries were well-off black businessmen with other business interests, who are able to exert influence on district and provincial officials.

The report also said that more than 80% of the beneficiaries were male.

There has been a high rate of failure in land-reform projects because many of the beneficiaries lacked capital and farming experience.

Didiza said the application process would be the same as before with an additional emphasis that women receive preference. Didiza and her deputy Mcebisi Skwatsha are adamant that they have addressed weaknesses in the system and that the allocations will be free of corruption.

District beneficiary screening committees would screen applications and interview applicants. They would then make recommendations to a provincial technical committee.

There would also be an appeal process for unsuccessful applicants. Applicants with