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The government of President Thabo Mbeki plans to resettle about 70,000 black commercial farmers on about 2 million hectares of state-owned land over the next 15 years, media reports said.
The resettlement initiative will cost the government about US $714 million in grants and other administrative costs to resettle aspiring black farmers. The reports added that an annual amount of about US $42 million has been budgeted for the programme.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Dirk du Toit said about 700,000 hectares of land was immediately available to start resettling the farmers. He said about 15 percent of state-owned land suitable for commercial farming will be redistributed to the black farmers.
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