Land reform hamstrung by cash shortage

A shortage of funds was severely hampering the redistribution of South Africa’s mainly white-owned commercial farm land to its rural poor, South African Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza told delegates at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Durban on Thursday.

“The aim of redistributing 30 percent of the land has faced delays because we still need the funds to redistribute the land,” Didiza said. The government has said it plans to resettle 70,000 black commercial farmers on two million hectares of state-owned land over the next 15 years. About 300 million rand ($42 million) has been allocated to the programme.

A shortfall of funds needed to compensate commercial farmers for selling their land has meant that only 4,000 claims have been settled out of 65,000 since 1994. The 65,000 claims stem back to 1913, when the then white government began seizing land from blacks.