By Steuart Pennington
With President Trump’s offer of refugee status to ‘Afrikaner’ farmers radio talk shows and social media have been abuzz with the tired rhetoric of “our land has been stolen” “all farmland is owned by whites” etc.
Sadly, most of the talk show hosts know nothing of the facts, as do social media commentators. So here they are:
SA’s geographical area is 122 million hectares
Farmland with title deeds comprises 77.58 million hectares
- Land restitution – defined as the restoration of land rights to black communities who lost their land due to apartheid law· 4 million hectares restored to communities previously disposed
· 2.68 million hectares chosen to be financially compensated (Cost R22 billion)
· Total restoration 6.68 million hectares
- Land redistribution – defined as land acquired from white farmers on a willing-seller-willing-buyer basis for transfer to black owners· 7.55 million hectares purchased by government for transfer to black owners
· 1.9 million hectares acquired by black farmers without assistance from the government
· Total redistribution 9.45 million hectares
- Government acquisition – government acquiring productive farmland to lease
· 2.54 million hectares acquired for this purpose
· 630 000 hectares acquired by SOE’s and provincial government for non-agricultural use.
The Maths
Total therefore 25% of all farmland previously owned by white land owners has been restored, redistributed to black South Africans
This needs to be added to the 6.7 million hectares currently community owned. If added the quantum of agricultural land available to black owners is 34%
Concern
By governments own admission 94% of the redistributed land lies fallow and is not used productively – potential threat to food security.
The post Land Reform in South Africa – The Real Numbers appeared first on The Home Of Great South African News.
With President Trump’s offer of refugee status to ‘Afrikaner’ farmers radio talk shows and social media have been abuzz with the tired rhetoric of “our land has been stolen”
The post Land Reform in South Africa – The Real Numbers appeared first on The Home Of Great South African News. Read More
