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.