Agriculture and Land Affairs South Africa

Mbeki silence on farm claim disturbing

2007-02-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

Sapa February 01 2007
President Thabo Mbeki's silence on controversial statements by Agriculture Minister Lulu Xingwana about abuse of farm workers were both telling and disturbing, the African Christian Democratic Party said on Thursday.

"It creates the impression that Xingwana is speaking with the consent of Mr Mbeki, and that they are working in unison to act out African National Congress strategy," ACDP agriculture spokesperson Francois van Wyk said in a statement.

In the meantime, he said, South Africa was "reeling" under the effects of the brutal killings of farmers who had added enormous value to the country after 1994.

He said Xingwana's recent "exaggerated" statements about the purported widespread abuse of farm workers were nothing but opportunistic and dangerous 2009 election talk.

"It amounts to cheap politics, at the risk of endangering the lives of farm owners and their workers."

Xingwana last year claimed that violence against women and children was rife in the sector, and claimed that farmers inhumanely evicted workers.

Land body to fast-track claims

2007-01-12T11:12:00.000-08:00

Land claims can be settled by the Land Claims Commission without ministerial approval, in order to speed up the restitution process, the commission said yesterday.

Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulama Xingwana has delegated her powers to the chief land claims commissioner and regional land claims commissioners.

This will enable the Land Commission to fast-track outstanding claims, said chief commissioner Thozamile Gwanya.

Land claims of up to a R1 million will go through Gwanya’s office, while claims of up to R50 million will be approved by regional commissioners.

“The commission commits itself that this delegation of power shall be exercised within a clearly defined policy framework, and control measures have been put in place to guard against misuse of these powers,” Gwanya said.

The commissioners will report all approved claims to the Minister monthly.

The number of claims settled in October and November is 701, involving 193 819 hectares for 20 624 households.

Development support worth R108 million has been approved for claimants who choose the return of land.

The Minister will approve land claims of higher than R100 million. All expropriations will also be approved by her.

ACDP relieved at failed farm attack

2007-01-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) has voiced relief at the foiling of a Free State farm attack by the local farming community's intelligence structures.

"The farm attack was stopped by Free State agriculture in conjunction with the police," ACDP agriculture spokesperson Francois van Wyk said in a statement on Thursday.

A Bothaville farmer and his wife were to have been the victims of the planned farm attack.

Van Wyk said although 18 Free State farmers and their relatives were killed last year, it was encouraging that farmers' intelligence had helped to stop a further 60 farm attacks.

Condemning the recent murder of a farm manager in KwaZulu-Natal, he said the ACDP had drawn attention to a possible connection between farm attacks and "incorrect assertions" - especially true lately in the Western Cape.

Silence in communicating the true facts when these assertions were proved wrong would inevitably lead to a decline in trust in the government and Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulama Xingwana, said Van Wyk.

The ACDP urged the SA Human Rights Commission to investigate charges in this regard laid against Xingwana and to make public their findings to stop further bloodshed.

While crime against farmers were a serious problem, their murders was a worsening crisis, he said.

Land affairs faces leadership challenges

2006-11-23T12:58:00.000-08:00

Leadership and management "challenges" have led to problems in her department, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulama Xingwana said on Wednesday.

The problems include the implementation of land-reform and restitution programmes, the administration of state land, land audits and human resource management, Xingwana said in a statement.

Capacity constraints are also affecting the ability to deliver and there is a lack of personnel to manage leases and plans at provincial level.

There are currently 1 000 vacancies in the department and only about a third of state land has been audited to date.

Xingwana said these issues came out after consultation with senior management in the department.

"With the challenges in the Deeds Office, which we are currently addressing, including an intervention to stop a possible strike action, all these demonstrate the nature of the challenges the department faces."

She said the Public Service Commission will investigate matters that require intervention and will report back on what can be done to correct the problems faced.

"On the basis of a report by the Public Service Commission, we will determine the necessary intervention to ensure that the department fulfils its mandate," Xingwana said.

Claiming 64 farms to expand cloud cuckoo land

2006-11-23T12:52:00.000-08:00

The future of various business owners and farmers on prime agricultural land hangs in the balance after it became known that a claim for the restitution of land rights had been lodged on their properties.

An estimated 20 000ha of land comprising about 64 farms will be influenced, including areas like Rhenosterkop and Uitkyk.

According to Zithini Dlamini, senior communications officer for the regional land claims commission in Mpumalanga, the claim was lodged by Sicelo Audacious Nkosi, tribal leader of the Mpakeni Tribal Authority.

The claim, covering the areas traditionally known as Mpakeni and Mlegeni, was accepted by the Land Claims Commission as valid. The commission also says the claimants have been verified.

Dlamini indicated that the claim had already partly gazetted and some properties were in the negotiation phase, but others were awaiting the gazette amendment.

Most landowners affected were unaware of the claim.

Dlamini said a number of overlapping claims had been consolidated with the community claim. There were no competing ones. A professional valuer would be appointed soon to pro- vide a basis for price talks.

Agriculture in severe decline

2006-11-11T13:23:00.000-08:00

SA’s Agriculture Research Council is confident agriculture can reverse its fortunes and sustain thousands of blacks the government wants to enter the sector, the state-funded body’s chief said. Agriculture has been in severe decline for several years, battered by post-apartheid liberalisation and exposure to global competition.

Shadrack Moephuli, the newly appointed CEO of the council, said recent data showing agriculture had created 147 000 jobs in the year to March, was cause for optimism.

“The agricultural sector is not declining ... the number of smallholder farms ... has actually been increasing,” he said.

“That is the area where you’ll have the biggest impact in terms of family crops ... That will have the biggest impact on the economy,” said the Moephuli, who once was with the Department of Agriculture.

South African farming shrank 6,9% in the first quarter of this year, whereas it grew at an annual rate of around 6% in the 1980s.

Its dwindling performance has raised questions about the government’s plans to encourage more blacks to take up farming — a policy it touts as an antidote to poverty and a stimulus for economic growth.

Land reform seeks to draw more blacks into agriculture to wipe out the remnants of decades of racist policies.

A tiny white minority still owns over 90% of farmland, despite government efforts to boost black ownership to 30% by 2014.

Officials have conceded that a dire shortage of skills has stalled this process, while critics have raised alarm about racing to reach targets without training new farmers to cope in a tough industry.

Analysts have warned this could threaten food production if too many unskilled farmers are left to work the land.

Moephuli said his council planned to get more involved in training staff from the Department of Land Affairs to speed up reforms as well as assist novice producers with more productive farming methods.

“The pace (of land reform) is very slow. That’s also my concern but I think what we can do as the Agricultural Research Council is provide services to the relevant government departments to assist them in providing appropriate technical advice in their planning processes,” he said.

Disastrous freeze on land sales

2006-11-10T15:09:00.000-08:00

The proposed moratorium on the sale of land to foreigners would have a disastrous impact on property development in the country, the Institute of Estate Agents of South Africa said yesterday.

It was reacting to recommendations made by a panel of experts, chaired by Unisa academic Shadrack Gutto, which investigated the influence of foreign land ownership on property prices and land reform.

The panel’s 76-page report recommended that a moratorium be imposed with "immediate effect, as an interim measure until appropriate legislation has been promulgated".

The proposals will be put to proposals are subject to the Cabinet for approval before any legislation is considered. The proposal was first officially proposed at the National Land Summit last year before being adopted by the ANC national general council.

Land activists and government officials have said they believe that foreign interest in prime land and property has been pushing pushed prices beyond the reach of South Africans, and that it could hinder land -reform efforts.

Prominent lawyer Christine Qunta, a member of the panel, said the moratorium was an interim measure intended to prevent panic buying while legislation was drafted, should the proposals be adopted the proposals were being considered.

"The difficulty we considered is that in the interim period there might just be a situation where we witness dramatic increases in the purchase and sale of land by foreigners."

Bill Rawson of the Institute of Estate Agents said that the proposed moratorium - if implemented - would have negative impact on foreign investment and would stall golf and polo estates across the country.

This, he said, would result in job losses and financial ruin for many estate agents and property developers who have invested millions of rands in such developments. Rawson said he was "saddened" by the panel’s recommendations. He said his organisation did not believe that foreign land ownership impacted negatively on the country’s economy or government’s efforts to redistribute land.

"It was agreed that foreign land ownership can only be very small, less than 1%. To me it is such a shame that this is being recommended," he said.

The panel’s report said that there is "widespread local concern about ownership and purchase of South African assets by foreigners".

However, it said that under the current system of registration of deeds, it was "virtually impossible to ascertain the precise extent of foreign ownership and use of land in South Africa" of this.

The panel has recommended an overhaul of the property deed s registration system to ensure "compulsory disclosure" of the nationality of buyers. This would enable government to establish the extent of foreign land ownership in the country.

It also recommended that the minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs should be empowered to approve sales of land of a certain value. These would include agricultural land, land earmarked for redistribution and restitution, protected areas and development of golf estates.

Rawson said this would spell disaster for the "golfing tourism market", which he says generates millions of rands each year for the country’s economy. Rawson said foreigners buy property at the highest end of the market, which does not affect the lower market. He said the growing black middle-class - not foreigners - was pushing up property prices.

However, Qunta said there would be no retrospective action on land already owned by foreigners as the Constitution prohibited the arbitrary alienation depravation of property.

The Alliance of Land and Agrarian Movements welcomed the moratorium but cautioned that foreign land ownership was not as big a problem as the continued ownership of land by white commercial farmers, where a moratorium, it said, was needed on evictions.

Africa's next man-made famine

2006-11-06T13:05:00.000-08:00

Africa’s next famine may be over the horizon. Like the horrific famines of Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and elsewhere, the famine will be man-made. The most productive agricultural lands on the continent risk being laid waste, thanks to a new land grab by the South African government. The first targets: white owners of farms and their traditionally Christian black workers.

With neighboring Zimbabwe reeling from man-made famine brought on by “President for Life” Robert Mugabe’s racially motivated land seizures, South Africa may be headed for a repeat performance, warns prominent South African farmer Philip Du Toit warns.

The new land grab is seen as a combination of continued commitment to class warfare by President Thabo Mbeki’s government, and a combination of ethnic and religious persecution of conservative Christians, both black and white, whose livelihoods depend on private commercial farms. Mbeki, who succeeded Nelson Mandela in 1999, is a longtime leader of the South African Communist Party.

Du Toit, a farmer and Pretoria-based lawyer, is in Washington to raise the alarm about a new government decree that allows the state to confiscate land from white farmers at will.

Author of a new book, The Great South African Land Scandal, Du Toit warns that the land seizures, ostensibly intended to correct racial injustice, will destroy the country’s commercial agriculture as it has in Zimbabwe if allowed to continue. “They say that they take it to give it ‘back’ to the people, but usually it remains in government hands as common property,” says Du Toit, who is trying to represent victimized farmers in court. The central government also is subverting South African blacks’ traditional chieftain system, he says, by usurping the decisionmaking authority of the local chiefs.

The new government policy, Du Toit tells Insight, will have a catastrophic effect on thousands of black families who work the farms. “They have no place else to go if the property is seized.” The government now is seizing only white-owned farms, but Du Toit says many black farmers are concerned that if the process continues the traditional tribal lands will be next. “At the moment they will not touch the tribal areas,” according to Du Toit, “they will touch only the white farms.”

Chief land-claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya denounced Du Toit, who is white, calling his new book “a piece of racist literature.” Gwanya alleged that the book would provoke violence. “In fact if this book gets out into the general populace I can see racial outbreaks developing between blacks and whites,” Gwanya said, according to the South African Press Agency.

Du Toit tells Insight the present devastating famine in Zimbabwe is a direct result of Mugabe’s confiscations of productive, white-owned farms that began in 1991.

The 1994 restitution of the Land Rights Act allowed expropriation from white farmers in South Africa, but provided legal recourse to the independent courts for those targeted for seizure. A new decree, announced early in February, eliminates any legal recourse once government officials decide to seize a farm. That is, the land is taken by fiat without appeal to the courts.

“The constitution guaranteed due process,” Du Toit says. “Now the people cannot appeal.”

Critics are likening South Africa’s new farm-confiscation policy to the land-reform policies in El Salvador in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which sought to correct injustices by confiscating larger farms, breaking them up, and reorganizing the workers in collectives or state-run cooperatives. Many workers received small parcels of land as their own. However, the reforms succeeded only in destroying El Salvador’s once-productive agricultural system and destroyed its export crops of rice, beans and cotton.

A quarter-century later, despite 15 years of peace and billions in international aid, tiny El Salvador is still a net importer of all three crops, and nearly one-third of its population has fled to the United States for work. This time the target is South Africa.

Farmers lose land

2006-10-25T07:27:00.000-07:00

Expropriation notices have been issued on four pieces of land in Limpopo, the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights announced.

"The notice for expropriation is our last resort following lengthy negotiations with the land owners, which to-date have yielded no results," said chief land claims commissioner Thozi Gwanya.

The expropriation notices concern four portions of the farm Turffontein 499 KR, in the Waterberg district.

On offer was R435 000 for a parcel of 21 4133 hectares; R525 000 for another of 21 4133 hectares; R300,000 for one of 23 3219 hectares; and R750 000 for a fourth of 22 2357 hectares.

The land claimants are from the Letlhakaneng Community in Bela Bela (formerly Warmbaths).

The exact manner of payment of compensation, including expropriation costs, would be determined at the point of expropriation, said commission spokeswoman Pulane Molefe.

She said Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana was empowered under the Restitution Act to issue expropriation notices restoring land rights to legitimate claimants.

The land owners had 21 days from delivery in which to respond, in writing, to the notices.

Molefe said the constitution required that compensation take into account the use of the land, acquisition history, the use of the property, market value, direct state investment and subsidy in the acquisition, capital improvements, and the purpose of expropriation.

Aspirant farmers reap ruin

2006-10-22T14:18:00.000-07:00

Eight years ago La Boheme was the envy of Limpopo’s mango farmers.

Situated in Trichardtsdal, neighbouring Hoedspruit and Tzaneen, which is collectively the country’s biggest mango-producing area, the 450ha farm boasted an annual turnover of about R3-million.

At the time, La Boheme’s owner, Leon Bondesio, built a palatial double-storey house on the farm with sweeping views of the Drakensberg escarpment.

In 1998, the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs bought the farm for R4.5-million and handed it over to 383 aspirant black farmers as part of the national land reform programme.

The initiative, known as a Settlement and Land Acquisition Grant (SLAG), made available a grant of R16000 per household, so that residents could pool their money to buy a farm.

The purchase of La Boheme by the then Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs, Derek Hanekom, was lauded in Parliament through a notice of motion congratulating Hanekom for “signalling” the ANC-led government’s commitment to implement a land redistribution policy.

But today, La Boheme’s mango orchards, comprising around 50000 trees, are untended and overgrown with dense alien vegetation. The double-storey house, which was to have been converted into an upmarket lodge, has been stripped bare.

Bit by bit, the new owners removed the ceilings, doors and windows, using the timber for improvements to their informal dwellings and for firewood.

All that is left of the once thriving commercial farm’s equipment are three broken tractors and a rusty plough.

The farm, which is administered by the Calais Communal Property Association (CCPA), has never made a profit since it changed ownership—and is now worth a mere R920000.

La Boheme is among 71 unproductive farms in Limpopo, bought under the SLAG scheme, that are now being targeted by the province’s MEC for Agriculture, Dikeledi Magadzi.

She admitted that the government’s SLAG scheme had been a “failure”.

“Most of these farms are lying barren. We admit our mistake and indeed we will be able to correct this mistake.”

She said her department had recently started the process of stripping farmers who were not interested in farming of their ownership rights.

Magadzi described her observations during her visit to eight farms in Tzaneen and Waterberg as “very disgusting”.

“At one of the farms there were dry mango trees, which tells you that no one bothered to water them. At another farm, I saw tractors that had ‘collapsed’.”

Emerging farmers told her that borehole machines and tractor parts had been stolen.

“I don’t have room for lazy farmers,” she said. “My message to them is to ship out.”

Magadzi admitted that one of the major reasons for the collapse of the farms was the lack of funds for input costs, mechanisation and capital projects.

La Boheme ran itself into the ground because of bitter infighting among beneficiaries and a lack of knowledge and expertise about farming.

The farm’s first manager, Ori Manthata, was booted out after eight months over allegations that he stole R48000.

Manthata subsequently cleared his name after successfully suing the CCPA for defamation of character. He was awarded R70000 in damages.

“When I left the farm there was about R130000 in CCPA’s bank account,” he said. “I never stole a cent.”

He was stunned to discover that the bulk of the farm’s assets had disappeared.

Among the assets he claimed were still on the farm when he left were six tractors, a four-ton truck, two ploughs, three trailers and three expensive bakkies.

During his short tenure as manager, he harvested mangoes worth R63000 and cultivated tomatoes and baby marrows worth R42000.

Now, except for about 15 beneficiaries battling to eke out a living by planting mealies on tiny plots, production on the farm has come to a halt.

After Manthata left, beneficiaries, impatient at not receiving any benefits, chopped up the ceilings and gouged out the window frames of the house.

He said the actions of the owners made him ashamed to be one of the beneficiaries.

“When the farm was bought, I thought my dream had finally come true. But now the place is a complete mess.”

He blamed the farm’s collapse on bad management and owners who were not willing to “put in an honest day’s work”.

A beneficiary and an executive member of the CCPA, Hamilton Mangena, 28, admitted that beneficiaries lacked the skills and experience to run the farm.

“We need large amounts of money from the government to turn it around.”

Mangena said they had received summons from the Land Bank demanding payment towards a debt of R1.1-million.

Beneficiaries told him to his face that they had removed items from the farmhouse because “it was their share”.

“They said the farm was useless to them because it was not making a profit,” Mangena said.

The chairman of the CCPA, Patrick Matjokotja, blamed the government for the farm’s collapse, saying the beneficiaries had not been trained to run it.

“The beneficiaries are not interested in farming,” he said.

Another owner of La Boheme, 62-year-old Joseph Moagi, said production stopped because the farm had no money. “Workers cannot work on the farm if they don’t get paid,” he said.

Theo de Jager, chairman of the land affairs committee at Agri-SA, blamed the farm’s failure on poor management, the lack of a business plan and beneficiaries displaying apathy towards the running of the farm.

“Three weeks after La Boheme was transferred to the new owners, the farm experienced a fire. One of the owners told me he would not be able to fight the fire because it was a Sunday and there was a big soccer match.”

Emerging farmers to sell their newly-acquired land

2006-10-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

Emerging farmers who want to sell their newly-acquired land cannot be stopped but the government may not approve a zoning change for the land, said the Western Cape department of agriculture.

"There's nothing stopping them from doing this. They're the owners of the land, they are obviously entitled to do that," said department spokesperson Alie van Jaarsveld.

However, he said the government would not be enthusiastic about approving any changes in land use for the property for the new owners and that high potential agricultural land would not be rezoned.

Van Jaarsveld was commenting on a report in The Herald that a group of 54 emergent farmers on the 30ha farm Groothoek, in Hansmoeskraal near George, were considering selling out to developers.

He said the department was still investigating the report.

Van Jaarsveld said the department spent "hundreds of thousands of rands" setting up a mechanised centre on the farm earlier this year.

"The department has actually walked quite an expensive and long road with this project."

He said while the farmers, as the owners, were entitled to sell, it went against the spirit of land reform.

The group were given the land by the government five years ago and farm vegetables and rose geranium for essential oils.

The Herald reported that George councillor Freddie Arries said he had been given a mandate by the farmers' association to negotiate with developers on their behalf.

In a prime position overlooking the sea, with views of Mossel Bay and Wilderness, the land is on a par geographically with Greg Norman's Le Grand golf development nearby, and Ernie Els's Ou Baai golf development in Herolds Bay.

Asking prices for property in Hansmoeskraal are about R500 000 a hectare and there is speculation that developers have offered as much as R100m for Groothoek.

One of the farmers, Klaasie Prins, confirmed that they were going to use some of the land for development.

"We have plans to develop some of the land for accommodation."

Director general's report card

2006-10-20T03:52:00.000-07:00

Glen Thomas is a Director General under fire. Both his bosses and interest groups consider him to be inefficient and out of touch with his portfolio. No doubt the director general knows the seriousness of the situation -- land reform is one of the critical elements in South Africa's political future.

To realise the 30% redistribution target set by Mbeki, about 1,75-million hectares needed to be redistributed every year from 2000. To date, 3,3-million hectares have been redistributed and therefore 21,3-million hectares must still be delivered.

This means about 2,3-million hectares a year must be delivered between 2006 and 2014. In its policy paper the department says it plans to deliver 3,1-million hectares a year for the next three years to enable government to meet this 30% target. At present there does not seem to be a coherent plan of how this will be achieved.

Thomas's critics say instead of doing his job, he tries to reinvent the wheel when a crisis arises, which wastes more time and energy. Even Mbeki has told him to stop trying to formulate polices and stick to his task, namely complying with policies.

It is virtually impossible to get an appointment with the director general. In light of the many criticisms, the M&G tried to interview him and, when that failed, sent e-mailed questions about his performance to his office. No response was received.

His inaccessibility is one of the points that frustrates commercial farmers most. Emerging farmers are equally frustrated by the slow service delivery.

The long-awaited paper on the government's willing-buyer, willing-seller policy is described as being out of touch with reality. It reinforces Thomas's reputation as a theocrat, with long academic and theoretic motivations, and many stakeholders say it is not practical.

Under Thomas the settlement rate of restitution cases has increased.

Not in my backyard

2006-10-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

Uncertainty about the development of 12 hectares next to Kirstenbosch Gardens that was handed over to 86 land restitution claimants in September has ruffled the feathers of residents in area.

There is confusion about what is being planned for the area, and residents say a low-cost development would push down the value of their multi-million-rand properties and disturb the natural vegetation.

The development issue will be on the agenda at the annual meeting of the Fernwood Residents Association, said spokesperson Jacques Blignaut. He said residents should have been involved in all discussions in the restitution process and future development.

Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and her husband have put a property right opposite the claimants land on the market. It has been for sale for about two months.

The Zimbabwean model

2006-10-16T02:25:00.000-07:00

RADICAL changes to government’s land reform policy are proposed in discussion documents which emerged from recent workshops held by officials of the land affairs department.

If accepted, the changes would see the willing-buyer, willing-seller principle in the state’s land reform acquisitions largely abandoned in favour of expropriation and what the documents call the “Zimbabwean model”.

SA’s land reform programme aims by 2008 to restore land rights to people forcibly dispossessed of their land under apartheid legislation, redress lost land-tenure rights and by 2014 to redistribute 30% of white-owned commercial agricultural land to emerging black farmers.

A joint discussion document produced by land affairs officials and the World Bank in August after a tax workshop included a proposal for a new land tax from which emerging farmers would be exempt. “The overarching goal should be to design this tax in such a way that it supports land reform and the creation of a fiscal base for local government,” the document says.

The documents were leaked to Farmer’s Weekly magazine. A report on the third draft of a document about a revision of willing-buyer, willing-seller appeared in its Friday edition.

Government has blamed the slow pace of land reform largely on adherence to the willing-buyer, willing-seller principle. Land affairs has said that principle inflates the price of land and delays negotiations.

The discussion document proposes that the principle be abandoned in favour of the Zimbabwean model.

The Zimbabwean model, or forced-sale principle, preceded land invasions in that country and there are fears it could happen here if employed. It meant that farmers who wanted to sell their land had to offer the government right of first refusal. If the government did not want the land it would issue a notice of “no present interest” which meant the landowner could sell the land.

Landowners could refuse an offer if the government wanted their land, but they would not be able to sell on the open market.

A further significant departure from policy among the proposals was that expropriation as a coercive instrument would not be confined to the restitution of land in settlement of land claims, but would also be used for acquisition of commercial farms in the pursuit of government’s 30% redistribution target.

In a policy development earlier this year, Agriculture and Land Affairs Deputy Minister Dirk du Toit announced that government would begin buying land for redistribution “proactively” by identifying suitable land and settling black farmers there, instead of waiting for applications.

The willing-buyer, willing-seller document was discussed by land affairs officials at a workshop in Midrand at the end of last month. Organised agriculture was not invited. A land affairs spokesman said, however, that the document was intended for internal discussion only and as part of the process of developing the department’s policy position, following recommendations made at last year’s land summit.

He emphasised that it did not reflect official policy and dismissed the suggestion that there was a division between land affairs officials and the department’s political leadership. He said the minister had not yet reflected on the contents of what was at this stage a “rudimentary” document.

Willie Lewies, vice-president of the white farmers’ union, TAU SA, said the proposed tax was not new, but that its exemption of emerging farmers reflected “increasingly blatant discrimination against white farmers”. A race-based tax would “invite international condemnation,” Lewies said.

It was no longer clear who made policy. “Ministerial statements about land claims do not concur with what is happening on the ground,” he said.

Fast-tracking land reform

2006-10-09T12:32:00.000-07:00

South Africa is set to seize two more white-owned farms, one of them run by a church, to fast-track land reforms to rectify apartheid-era imbalances, a top land official said on Monday.

"The minister [of agriculture and land affairs] has signed the notices of expropriation and they have been sent. The owners have 30 days to respond, following which we will begin expropriation procedures," chief land claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya said.

One farm was located near the mining town of Cullinan and the other in the Northern Cape province.

The claimants to the Cullinan farm are two local families, while the local African Pniel community are staking claim to the Northern Cape farm, which is owned by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of South Africa.

Negotiations in both cases had been dragging on for two years.

The state had offered R520 000 in compensation for the 106ha Cullinan farm while the owner was demanding close to R1-million.

The church owning the other property, spanning 25 200ha, wanted R70-million while the state had offered R35,5-million, which "was higher than the market rate when the negotiations began three years ago", he said.

"The more they delay, the more the land prices go up," he said, adding that the minister of agriculture and land affairs was in the process of finalising four more expropriation notices for four more white-owned farms in the northern Limpopo province.

The South African government has set itself a target of settling nearly 7 000 rural land claims before a December 2008 deadline.

Pretoria is keen to finalise its lands claims and assure foreign investors it would not follow the same path as its neighbour Zimbabwe, which was plunged into crisis when white farms were seized and given to landless blacks.

Gwanya had said in August that the decision to seize white-owned land if negotiations linger or end in deadlock is paying off with more and more farmers accepting the price offered by the state.

"These farmers have become more supportive because we are cracking the whip," he said in an interview.

He said at the time a decision to issue expropriation notices to farmers if negotiations on the price or title deeds exceeded six months had helped speed up the land-reform programme aimed at handing over nearly a third of white-owned land to new black farmers by 2014 to redress the injustices of apartheid.

"They are coming round to the table and there has been a very good response in Mpumalanga, where 70 farms in the Tevubu area were identified for expropriation. Of them, 40 farmers agreed to our price at the last minute."

90 farmers in Limpopo had done an 11th hour about-turn out of 200 faced with expropriation notices.

And in KwaZulu-Natal "there were 80 cases in which we were about to send the letter of expropriation when all of them came to discuss the price again".

Lazy beneficiaries to lose land

2006-10-01T11:28:00.000-07:00

Here is another South African success story - how the beneficiaries of so-called land reform has produced nothing at all on their farms.

Land reform beneficiaries who've made no attempt to make their new farms profitable will lose their ownership rights.

Limpopo's agriculture department will start de-registering lazy or corrupt beneficiaries at 71 farms worth over R100m.

"Government is aware that these farms have not been producing optimally due to a number of problems," said provincial agriculture spokesperson Segoati Mahlangu. "We have undertaken this initiative because we believe that if we have committed people, the projects can succeed."

The farms were awarded to land claimants as part of the Settlement Land Acquisition Grant (Slag) between 1994 and 2002.

Most of these projects have collapsed because funds were embezzled, managers overpaid themselves and, in some instances, the farms were used as collateral for individuals' private businesses and ended up being sold by financial institutions.

South Africa's bitter harvest

2006-10-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

A forced takeover of white farms threatens to bring economic ruin and hunger to South Africa, a land of plenty.

THERE ARE two ways of looking at the historic problems of land ownership. One is the traditional way of seeking justice for the original owners, often through land reform. This often has its own problems, since it is sometimes impossible to establish who were the original owners; there may be several competing claims. The alternative is to give preference to those who will use the land to produce the most food, most efficiently.

In Africa, the historic approach is favoured by the black majority who often believe that their tribal lands were stolen by white farmers. The white farmers naturally advance the productivity argument; they regard farming as a large-scale scientific business requiring capital and highly trained skills. It is a conflict between traditional rights and the modern economy.

These two attitudes are to be found wherever there is an historic dispute over land ownership. In Africa it may be black versus white, but land disputes arise all over the world, including Europe. I am sure there are Roman Catholic farmers in Ireland who still resent the expropriation of their ancestral lands by English Protestants in the 16th or 17th centuries. Such injustices can rankle over many generations. Human beings have a territorial instinct and will fight to defend their territory as fiercely as robins.

Southern Africa is at present the global focus of this contest. In Zimbabwe, President Mugabe has seized the white farms, driving out many of the farmers by brute force. Despite some pretence of legality, these have been illegal takeovers. The consequence has been that Zimbabwe has ceased to be a net exporter of food and has become dependent on international food aid. This collapse of food production has wrecked the whole economy. Mugabe has been a disastrous leader, and is seen by the non-African world as an incompetent dictator. To many Africans he is still a hero, asserting the black people’s rights to reclaim their ancestral land.

Last month Lulu Xingwana, the South African Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs, made an important declaration of policy. Of course, the new policy must have been approved, perhaps initiated, by President Mbeki. Ms Xingwana was speaking at a rally in Limpopo province, in the main farming region of South Africa. The African National Congress had always been committed to returning white-owned farms to black claimants under the Black Economic Empowerment programme; so far only 4 per cent of the land has been transferred. Now Ms Xingwana has put an official time limit on the process. She says vehemently that it must be redistributed completely by December 2008; black farmers will have the right to buy out the existing white farmers.

“We will no longer waste time negotiating with people who refuse to see the transformation of our country . . . from now on we will only negotiate for six months and, if all fails, expropriation will take place.”

In Limpopo province, black claimants have already launched their claims for the return of 99.8 per cent of the farmland. Many white farming families have enjoyed ownership for several generations. Even the black claims that are based on the undoubted injustices of the apartheid system may now be 50 years old; other claims for the colonial period would be even older. Claims may be based on tribal rather than individual ownership.

The South African Government is anxious to avoid the comparison with Zimbabwe. Ms Xingwana has also said that expropriation will be the last resort. Ministries have established a programme for joint ventures, under which land coming into black ownership could be run in partnership with existing white farming enterprises, if they chose to do it.

The stakes are very high. South Africa is much better governed than Zimbabwe, it is true, but South Africa is also far more important than Zimbabwe; it is the dominant economy of Southern Africa. Some 95 per cent of South African food production comes from the 45,000 white farms that employ half the agricultural workers. Only the remaining 5 per cent of food is said to be produced by the 740,000 black workers on black farms. The white sector operates at the level of modern efficiency of the global economy. Most of the black sector is devoted to traditional subsistent farming. One can go into any British supermarket and find South African food on sale. It is mainly food from white farms that competes in the global food market.

Modern farming requires large capital for equipment, for bulk seed supplies, for marketing. The black farm sector does not have this capital. Modern farming also requires management skills and trained workers, in which the black sector is deficient. There is a very wide gap between the productivity of the two sectors.

In Zimbabwe, forced and often violent takeovers of white farms led to a disastrous collapse of farm production. In South Africa a legal process of takeover under a democracy might lead to less disastrous results, but would still replace high-productivity white farming with the lower productivity of black farming. At best, the Government of South Africa would have a hard struggle to limit the damage done by its own land policy.

The timetable seems to be much too short for such a large-scale farming revolution and the objectives seem much too ambitious. This is not a question of racial capacities, but of farming productivity. If expropriation is completed by 2008 one expert considers that by 2009: “South Africa will no longer to be able to feed itself nor assist Southern Africa.” That would be a humanitarian tragedy.

South Africa needs the white farmers who are an essential and efficient part of the national economy — indeed, they contribute to feeding the whole of Southern Africa. The main victims of this policy would be those poor blacks whom it is supposed to benefit.

Land reform is working

2006-09-29T02:50:00.000-07:00

Land reform, and especially land restitution, were proceeding according to plan, the Deputy Minister of Land Affairs said.

"There's this wrong impression that most of these projects, especially restitution, are failing. That is not true, they are working," Dirk du Toit told a press briefing at the Union Buildings.

He was speaking after the Presidential Commercial Agricultural Working Group meeting. It was attended by government representatives, the National African Farmers Union (Nafu), AgriSA, the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU) and the Agriculture CEO Forum. President Thabo Mbeki and his deputy, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, were also present.

Du Toit said the restitution commission had "really performed brilliantly".

On crime, AgriSA said the matter was not discussed. "We have not got to any solution yet. We do not hear them (government) saying they are not happy about it," said TAU-SA president Paul van der Walt. He said the farmers body would try to get the matter onto the agenda at the next working group meeting.

AgriSA president Lourie Bosman said Deputy President Mlambo-Ngcuka had expressed an interest in how agriculture could contribute to the country's economic growth. "In the last few years we (the agricultural sector) have actually shrunk as far as job opportunities and economic growth are concerned."

Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana said concerns had been expressed that land restitution was slow and needed to be speeded up. She said marketing South Africa's agricultural sector was one of the "major hindrances" facing it. The group had discussed promoting the sector in India and China as well as the rest of Africa.

TAU-SA president Paul van der Walt said that care had to be taken not to neglect the local farming sector in the rush to expand into foreign markets. "We must beware we don't leave SA farmers behind. Agriculture in SA is beginning to fall behind. If we keep getting smaller, we can have nice markets outside, but we won't be able to serve them."

Xingwana said farmers were given assurances that whatever government's programs were, they would not be left behind. She said a report on the government's bio-fuel strategy would be tabled at an inter-ministerial committee by the end of October, and tabled in Parliament by the end of November.

TAU-SA general manager Bennie van Zyl took exception to Du Toit's optimism on the progress of land restitution. The program "doesn't work", he said. Being a farmer required a host of skills, such as a sense of urgency, the ability to accept responsibility, financial management and knowledge of markets.

"Not everybody can be a farmer." He said this was not a matter of race as there were also many whites incapable of being successful farmers.

Zimbabwe here we come

2006-09-08T00:33:00.000-07:00

Strong words from the minister on so-called land reform. Sounds more like a communist by the day.

The principle of willing-buyer, willing-seller was not, and should not be, under discussion when it came to land claims, said Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana on Thursday.

"As soon as a claim is valid, there should be no talk of the principle of willing-buyer, willing-seller as it then becomes a forced transaction. There is then only one buyer (the government) and one seller (the land owner)..."

According to her, the government at this stage has only one responsibility in terms of the constitution - to consider reasonable remuneration to the land owner. Xingwana said when the state paid compensation for land it would have to consider the existing use of the land, as well as the manner in which it was come by and what it had been used for in the past. Furthermore, not only the market value would be used in determining the selling price, but also the direct government investments and subsidies for improvements on the land.

Xingwana again emphasised that 30% of agricultural land had to change hands by 2014.

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How land reform works in the real world

2006-09-06T15:18:00.000-07:00

South Africa: A ruined farm worth R100 million

Here is a news item showing another ruined farm that was handed over via "Land Reform" - which the ANC assured us would NOT be the failure that so-called "Land Reform" was in Zimbabwe!

This farm in Letsitele, is a massive orange farm. This farm was worth R100 million. The ANC is not handing over just any old "silly family farm" - they are actually getting the best, the finest farms/businesses which are worth enormous sums of money, and they are handing it over. And these farms are collapsing! The new owners couldn't keep a successful going concern functioning!

This farm produced 140,000 oranges worth R7 million per annum at the time it was handed over. Now it produces - NONE!

The new owners are now chopping up the dead orange trees for firewood!

Here is a massive disused shed on the farm...

A tractor in the shed is no longer working - it has no tyres on its front wheels. The excuse given for the farm"s collapse was that the new owners to whom it was handed over to did not have the adequate skills!

Another ANC Land Reform "success"!

From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 2/13/2006

Here is the farm, you are now a farmer

2006-09-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

Never mind food on the table, it's about setting things right

Eleven years after coming to power the ANC government has generally left fixed property rights alone. Apart from its constitutional obligations, government recognises the dangers of tampering with these rights. Though everyone benefits from the protection of private property, some people see it as merely freezing the results of great injustice. Since most land is still in white hands, it is not surprising that pressure for expropriation is mounting. Many people find it galling that government thinks its ability to attract the investment needed to uplift the poor depends on allowing the rich and the not-so-poor to keep the fruits of apartheid.

Anyone familiar with our history recognises all this. Which is why some of them are now asking questions about recent land expropriations and the threat of more to come. It looks as if President Thabo Mbeki, to hold the political centre, feels he must make concessions to the left. Concessions are tricky: they can buy time, they can eliminate a threat, or they can whet the appetite for more. What strengthens the impression that the assumption of more power to expropriate is mainly political is that it is unlikely to do much to make land reform succeed. The problems besetting the whole programme are greater and more complex than white farmers holding out for high prices or dragging their feet. Numerous reports have identified some of them: the collapse of many farms taken over, bureaucratic delays, lethargic officials, and 'capacity constraints?. But resentment in some quarters towards white farmers should not make them into scapegoats for government?s own ineptitude. Nor should government?s own failings be blamed on the supposed failure of the 'willing buyer willing seller? market.

The land reform programme appears to ignore the fact that farming in South Africa has become even tougher with the liberalisation of food product markets. To settle poor people on farms without capital or training is to set them up for failure. Land degradation rather than commercial or even peasant success has often followed. This has all along been obvious. It prompts questions about the purpose of land reform. Is the restitution of land to people removed from it designed to be just that and no more? Is land redistribution also merely an end in itself? Or is there a serious intention to nourish a new and growing class of small farmers?

So you settle people on farm land without bothering what they will do next. In the words of a departmental land affairs manager in the North West province, "Post-transfer support from government departments to beneficiaries is still lacking."

On present trends white farmers will certainly lose out. Agricultural production may shrink. But there is little indication that resettled black families will prosper. On the contrary, if expropriation merely speeds up land transfers it will create more failure and more frustration. So private property rights will have been attenuated for no purpose beyond the risky one of concession to populist pressure in the hope of buying it off. *

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2006-09-05T12:05:00.000-07:00

"We are, therefore, now going to negotiate just for six months - nothing less, nothing more - and then expropriation will kick in"

2006/08/14

SABC reported that Xingwana said her department would now negotiate for six months only with land owners whose property prices were inflated. If the negotiations fail, the land will be expropriated in order to reach the settlement target date of December 2008.

Meet the minister

2006-09-05T04:13:00.000-07:00

Lulama Xingwana, Ms

Personal
Date of Birth: 23 September 1955
Marital Status: Single

Current Positions
Minister of Agriculture and land Affairs of the Republic of South Africa since 22 May 2006.
Member of African National Congress Women's League's (ANCWL) National Working Committee (NWC) and National Executive Committee (NEC) since 1993.
Member of Parliament since 1994.

Academic Qualifications
Bachelor of Science degree from the University of the Witwatersrand (1985).
Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Development and Leadership Studies from Zimbabwe, Harare (1998).
Post Graduate Diploma in Economic Principles from the University of London (2002).
Enrolled for Master of Sciences in Development Finance at the University of London.

Career/Memberships/Positions/Other Activities
Worked for the Learn and Teach as a Tutor, trainer and running classes for the Domestic workers in the Northern Suburbs of Johannesburg and rural areas in South Africa (1985 -1987).
Worked for the South African Council of Churches as Director, Women's Development Programmes (1987).
Member of the Federation of South African Women (1981 - 1991).
Member of the United Democratic Front (UDF) (1983 - 1991).
Member of (ANCWL), Head of Development Section (1991 - 1994).
Chairperson of Sports, and Recreation Portfolio Committee (1994 - 1999).
Chairperson of Malibongwe Rural Development Project for women (1998 - 2000).
Member of Gauteng Provincial Executive Committee of the African National Congress (ANC) (1998 - 2001).
Member of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Portfolio Committee (1996 - 2004).
Chairperson of Parliamentary Women's Caucas (1999 - 2004).
Member of Defence Portfolio Committee (1999 - 2004).
Member of Minerals and Energy Portfolio Committee (1999 2004).
Chairperson of Joint Monitoring Committee on Improvement of Quality of Life and Status of Women (2002 - 2004).
Chairperson of SADC Regional Women's Caucus (2002 - 2004).
Member of Cabinet Committee on Investment and Employment (2004).
Member of Cabinet Committee on International Relations, Peace and Security (2004).
Member of Cabinet Committee on Economic Sector (2004).
Deputy Minister of Minierals and Energy of the Republic of South Africa (29 April 2004 - 22 May 2006).
Source: Ministry of Agriculture and land Affairs