The government welcomes open debate on the issue of foreign land ownership, Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana said on Friday.
She said this particularly applied to the question of whether or not proposed new regulations on land ownership should be put into effect retrospectively.
”We will be guided by the submissions and recommendations coming from South Africans in this regard,” Xingwana told reporters in Pretoria.
”The matter is open to debate, but as we sit now we have a Constitution that we must respect, we have laws that we must respect.”
The minister was speaking at the release of a government-commissioned report and recommendations on the development of policy regarding land ownership by foreigners in South Africa.
The panel commissioned to do the report made 10 recommendations, including the possible outright prohibition on foreign ownership of South African land.
On the grounds of national interests, environmental considerations, areas of historical and cultural significance and national security, the private ownership of land by foreigners and certain South Africans should be prohibited, the report said.
The prohibited areas should include National Key Points, coastal areas, conservation areas, land close to military installations, water catchment areas and land along borders and international boundaries.
The report also recommends a limited temporary moratorium of approximately two years prohibiting the disposal of state land to foreigners and South Africans citizens who do not qualify for redress under the national land-reform policies and legislation.
”This is not a blanket prohibition. It is meant to prevent certain spheres of government and organs of state from disposing of land that may be used for land reform and human settlements for the dispossessed and marginalised individuals and communities,” it read.
The panels said special exemptions should be considered and the moratorium lifted when the land ownership ideals in South Africa were put into place.
The report also recommended special ministerial approval to be introduced in cases when foreign ownership of land could ”negatively impact on the state’s constitutional obligations to affect land reform and achieve realisation of access to adequate housing”.
The compulsory disclosure of nationality, race and gender amongst foreign and other property owners is also one of the panel’s recommendations.
The object of this regulation would be ”for disclosure and statistical purposes and not for effecting any unfair discrimination”, the report said.
In the report, private ownership of land by foreigners, and in some cases South African citizens, was said to have become an ”intervening” but not yet clearly known factor in constitutional land rights.
”Ordinary citizens, both black and white, feel very strongly that acquisition of prime land by foreigners is denying them affordable access to land and rendering them strangers in their own country,” the report said.
Foreigners own about 3% of residential, agricultural and farm land and sectional titles in South Africa.
The report is now available to the public, who have 60-days to comment on it. — Sapa