‘Land expropriation a last resort to cover ANC’s failure’

THE ANC government had resorted to the populist “land expropriation without compensation” to cover its gaping failure at land reform and how it continued to fail poor black farmers, the DA said yesterday.

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

The meeting aimed to find out about the Land Bank’s strategies to increase funding for emerging black farmers and continuous training and support.

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

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

“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.” – African News Agency (ANA)