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Johannesburg - The rural development and land reform department should take responsibility for tensions over land reform in South Africa, AfriForum said on Tuesday.
"Inadequate land policies, corrupt and incompetent officials in the department of land reform, and a culture of blame shifting should be seen as the source of the current frustration regarding land ownership in South Africa," spokesperson Cornelius Jansen van Rensburg said in a statement.
He was reacting to comments made by Minister Gugile Nkwinti while speaking at a business breakfast in Johannesburg on Tuesday morning.
Nkwinti said there was currently "creative tension" among South Africans because the subject of land was not settled. He blamed this on "the past". He said for the country to move forward "just and constitutional means" were needed. If the land issue was not resolved, everything else would fall apart.
"With such statements government is trying to intimidate land owners," said Jansen van Rensburg.
He said the minister was insinuating that land grabs and attacks on citizens were inevitable if land owners did not abandon some of their property rights.
"The propaganda that white people have stolen all of these communities' land is also false, and a balanced picture should be given of historical land ownership in South Africa."
