The South African Land Claims Commission is well behind targets for the redistribution of agricultural land, the Herald Online reported on Monday.
It quoted chief land-claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya as saying about four million hectares of agricultural land had been distributed since 1998.
An additional three million hectares a year will have to be allocated to meet the government’s objective of having 30% of agricultural land in the hands of Africans by 2014.
Gwanya was speaking on the weekend at the annual general meeting of the Southern Cape Land Committee in Port Elizabeth.
He said the government has been trying to adhere to a willing-buyer, willing-seller approach, but slow progress on that basis is prompting a review of that policy.
When the government came to power in 1994, it estimated there were about six million people who had been affected by forced removals during the apartheid era.
Gwanya said the commission had been disappointed by the number of claimants opting to accept a cash settlement in lieu of land.
This is not in line with the government’s aim of encouraging citizens to return to the land, become self-sufficient and reverse the migration to urban areas.
”We have seen so many cases where people have taken cash instead of land and, instead of using it productively, have frittered it away on non-essentials such as electronic goods and tombstones,” he said.
Gwanya said the government is also concerned over the ineffectiveness of massive farms, usually in the hands of a single owner.
It is, therefore, looking at introducing a land tax to encourage the division of farms into smaller packets.
This will follow the example of the European Union where small, family-run farms of 20ha to 30ha were operating effectively. — Sapa