Cape Town - The clumsy manner in which the government is currently attempting to push through land reform will cost it dearly, said Theo de Jager, deputy president of Agri SA and its spokesperson on land affairs.
Government was now guilty of the very injustice towards white landowners that was perpetrated against black people when they were dispossessed of their land without proper compensation, he said.
Landowners whose properties were embroiled in restitution claims should preserve all the documents related to the process, said De Jager. He was convinced that in 10 years, they will be able to present valid arguments that they were treated unfairly and did not receive proper compensation for their property.
De Jager said the restitution process began to go awry from the start because activists incited people to institute claims that involved almost all the agricultural land in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and North West.
"The activists insinuated themselves into the public service and became senior officials, but never hung up their activist jackets to became administrators," said De Jager.
"This has led to corruption, nepotism and self-enrichment while the officials hiked the prices of land for personal gain while placing the blame squarely on the landowners."
The problem was exacerbated as the original deadline for land claims, March 2005, approached and little had been done to finalise the process.
This led to thousands of farms hurriedly being listed in the Government Gazette without the validity of the claims being investigated.
The department began paying out billions of rands and quickly ran out of money, while the local economies of towns like Utrecht, Levubu, Barberton, Malelane and Tzaneen, where large-scale land claims had been awarded, collapsed.
De Jager said government was now acknowledging that half of the farms that changed ownership owing to land reform were already no longer productive while the rest were following close on their heels.
The problem had been worsened because the Land Reform department has been unable to explain to the auditor-general where R1.15bn of its funds has gone.
Consequently there is no money left to proceed with land reform.
De Jager said when the Zuma government took over the reins in April this year it sounded the death knell for the principle of willing buyer/willing seller, without investigating the real reasons for the hike in property prices.
It is against this background that one should understand the recent remark by Lungu Johnson, chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee, that he saw no reason for the government to pay white landowners market-related prices as they had in any case stolen the land, said De Jager
"This has clearly nothing to do with the availability or affordability of land," De Jager argues. "It's an ideological thing."
He pointed out that government is in any event no longer paying market-related prices for land, and in the past 18 months landowners have been intimidated to accept up to 50% less than market value for their properties.
De Jager also expressed concern about the subversive role that he believed commercial banks play in forcing farmers whose farms have been listed, and who are in financial difficulties, to sell them at the reduced prices offered.
- Sake24