REUTERS and OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday
South African central bank governor Tito Mboweni announced that land redistribution would only take place within the framework of the law, and a Zimbabwe-style land grab would not be tolerated.
“This is a law-governed society … there is no question of anyone invading anyone’s farm. Anyone doing so will be arrested,” he said.
Mboweni was speaking after the rand hit a new low of 7.4025 to the dollar in a move which traders said was largely triggered by comments from Deputy President Jacob Zuma, which appeared to support Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform programme.
Mboweni said he had spoken with Zuma and the deputy president said he had not intended to send that message.
SA President Thabo Mbeki has said that any attempt to copy Zimbabwe’s violent grab of white-owned farms would not be tolerated in South Africa.
Mboweni repeated that redistribution of land in South Africa would only take place within “the context of the constitution and the law of the republic.”
Over 1000 white-owned farms in Zimbabwe have been invaded by self-styled veterans of the country’s liberation struggle.
Mugabe’s government has served notice it intends to acquire more than 2000 of the 3041 white-owned farms earmarked for resettlement to landless blacks and enacted laws absolving Harare of responsibility for compensation.
In South Africa, land-ownership, like income, remains overwhelmingly skewed in favour of the white minority, six years after the advent of majority rule.