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Nkwinti admits backslide in land reform

Cape Town - South Africa has reversed gains in its goal of transferring 30% of commercial farmland to blacks by 2014 after aspirant farmers resold land bought for them by the government, a cabinet minister said on Wednesday.

The sensitive issue of land ownership has been brought into focus by the decline in agriculture in Zimbabwe, where many white-owned commercial farms were seized by President Robert Mugabe’s government.

Africa's top maize producer set the 30% target in 1994 as part of a wider “empowerment” drive.

“Figures we had was about 7% but about 2% leaked out,” Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti told reporters ahead of tabling a draft land reform policy in parliament.

This “leakage” occurred because the government bought land and handed it over to aspirant farmers who then sold it again, in many instances back to the original owner, he said.

"So, more or less we talk about 5% (at present)," Nkwinti said.

He reiterated it would be tough to raise the R40bn required to buy land on a willing-seller, willing-buyer model to reach the 30% target.

The slow pace of redistribution has fuelled calls by ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema for white-owned farm land in South Africa to be forcibly taken over by the state.

Malema is fighting for his political life as he faces possible suspension from the ANC, but rural poverty will keep the land issue alive regardless.

Agriculture, which is labour-intensive, has been pegged as a key sector to help create five million jobs by 2020 but uncertainty has slowed investment and raised concerns about food security.

Many of the farms transferred to black farmers are standing fallow because they lack experience and support, although impoverished Zambia and Malawi have boosted maize harvests by small subsidies to peasant farmers, underscoring the dividends that can be reaped by targeted assistance.

The draft policy proposes restrictions on the sale of land to foreigners as part of a drive to accelerate reform without disrupting food production.

It also creates a quasi-judicial Land Management Commission that will have far-reaching powers. 

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