SA secures funds to pay for white-owned farms

South African President Thabo Mbeki has secured international funding for a scheme to purchase white-owned farms designated for allocation to landless black people, news reports said on Wednesday.

The reports quoted an aide to Mbeki as confirming that Norway and Saudi Arabia had agreed to provide US $14 million for purchase of 118 farms whose owners had already agreed to sell their properties. The officials said Mbeki had sought the funds from countries not involved in the current land dispute and that the monies would be made available through the UNDP office in Zimbabwe.

But George Charamba, a spokesman for president Robert Mugabe, played down the pledges saying donors had made similar promises two years ago: “On the face of it, we don’t see this as a new initiative, but a return to the commitments made by donors at the 1998 Zimbabwe International Land Conference.”