Barry Streek With 24,3-million hectares under its control – about 20% of the surface area of South Africa – the state is far and away the country’s biggest landowner. Even then, that figure excludes vast tracts of state-owned land, such as land owned by parastatals like Transnet and the 2,9- million hectares owned by the Ingonyama Trust in KwaZulu-Natal. Details of the state’s extensive property holdings were disclosed by Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza in reply to a question tabled in the National Council of Provinces by the African Christian Democratic Party’s Kent Durr.
She said the total estimated land surface of South Africa is 1E219E090km2, 13,8% of which are in the former homeland areas, 2,9% in national parks, 2,6% in provincial parks and 1% in trust and forestry land. Excluding Eskom’s holdings, 8,3% of the surface area is owned or formed by public companies, including agricultural and farming, mining and forest products companies.
She provided a table which showed the South African National Defence Force owns 43E632ha, including 254E812ha in the Northern Cape; the South African Police Service 40E145ha; the Department of Correctional Services 84E335ha; the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry 758E780ha; and the Department of Agriculture 86E694ha in financial assistance land, which is land brought in from insolvent farmers and public works agricultural land administered by the national Department of Agriculture. The South African National Parks own 3E354E300ha, while a further 3E138E669ha is in provincial nature reserves and protected areas.
A further 2E133E300ha of state land
includes unreserved Department of Public Works land, and other smaller holdings by departments such as home affairs, justice, and mineral and energy affairs – and experimental farms. Land affairs owns 11 807 605ha in the former homeland areas, and 1E315E530ha in South African Development Trust land outside the geographical boundaries of the former homelands and self-governing territories.
The state owns a total of 6,1-million hectares in the Eastern Cape; 5,3-million hectares in Northern Province; 3,9-million in North West, 1,9-million in KwaZulu- Natal; 2,4-million in Mpumalanga; 1,9- million in the Western Cape; 1,7-million in the Northern Cape; 635E776ha in the Free State; and 429E670ha in Gauteng. Didiza said these figures exclude unsurveyed and unregistered state-owned land such as coastal areas, foreign properties such as South African embassies, offshore islands such as Robben Island, land held in trust by the state such as former Coloured Rural Areas, parastatal land such as that owned by Transnet, the Ingonyama Trust Land in KwaZulu-Natal and land leased for state domestic or other national puruposes. She said it is estimated that between 5% and 7% of state land is available for redistribution because the other land is used for state domestic purposes or was already beneficially occupied.