/ 21 January 2008

State to take possession of expropriated farm

The state will on Thursday take possession of a Limpopo farm that was expropriated after it was liquidated. The liquidators refused to bring down the price at which they were willing to sell the farm to the government. The property is the second to be expropriated by the government as part of efforts to speed up the land-reform process.

The state will on Thursday take possession of a Limpopo farm that was expropriated after it was liquidated.

The liquidators refused to bring down the price at which they were willing to sell the farm to the government.

The property is the second to be expropriated by the government as part of efforts to speed up the land-reform process.

”We are going ahead with the expropriation process in all the instances where we feel that the land owners are just giving us a runaround,” said acting chief land claims commissioner Tumi Seboka.

”We have got a number of other cases where we are ready to serve the notice of possible expropriation to the land owners whom we feel are delaying the land-reform process unnecessarily,” she added.

A notice of expropriation was in December served on Sechaba Trust, the liquidators of the citrus-producing farm named Callais.

This followed the state’s offer of R13,361-million, which was rejected by the liquidators who demanded an amount of R19-million.

The farm will be handed over to Strategic Farm Management (SFM) as part of an interim caretakership arrangement, and later transferred to the Letebele, Mpuru and Maraba community.

The community would continue with the citrus-farming activities on the land, the land claims commission said.

SFM will manage the orchard on a fifty-fifty profit-sharing arrangement with the community. — Sapa