It will take a hundred years to transfer 30% of agricultural land to black farmers at the current rate, South African Communist Party leader Blade Nzimande said on Monday.
Joint action was needed to accelerate the land reform process if the 30% target was to be reached within the next ten years — as the Agri BEE draft charter stipulated, Nzimande said.
He was speaking at farmers’ summit, held by the National Farmer’s Union (Nafu), in Pretoria.
”The SACP Red October campaign aims to mobilise people to accelerate land reform to their benefit,” Nzimande said.
Nzimande said his party wanted accelerated transfer of land and agrarian reform as well as access to basic services for farm workers and the poor. It also believed there needed to be a national land summit to explain why the transfer of land was so slow.
Nzimande said the people needed to know why banks were still financing farmers using the same methods used during apartheid, adding that the R1,5-billion committed by banks for developing the agricultural sector was not enough.
”One of the biggest obstacles facing land reform is the willing buyer-willing seller principal,” Nzimande said.
He said with that principle, it was those who already owned the land — and not the landless — who benefited.
Nafu was created in the early nineties as a National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nafcoc) initiative and represents 4-million black farmers. – Sapa