30% Target for Land Redistribution

The government is ‘obsessed’ with achieving the redistribution of 30 percent of agricultural land from white to black hands because failure to address skewed land ownership patterns will result in polarisation and calamity. This is according Rural Development and Land Reform Minister, Gugile Nkwinti.

Speaking on progress made in the government’s programme of action, Nkwinti says the aim is to achieve the 30 percent target by 2014. However, government is reviewing the said target in light of reduced funding arising from the global economic crisis and the domestic recession.

Also up for review is the principle of willing buyer and willing seller. He says that when the government is the buyer of property, the price double or trebled as landowners held the government in a ‘stranglehold’. He further admits that the willing buyer, willing seller principle is not working.

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