Land: 'Govt on right track'

2005-08-24 17:18

Cape Town - The government's approach to land reform is the right one, albeit "a bit slow" and it will not be reckless in this regard, said deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka on Wednesday.

Replying to questions in the national assembly about her recent remarks that South Africa could learn from Zimbabwe about land reform, she said it was doubtful if anyone could deny the enormous problems with land ownership patterns in South Africa.

"The fact that we have these problems is not surprising, given the centuries of wars of dispossession and later racially based colonial and apartheid laws and policies designed specifically to drive black people off their land.

"I am convinced that no one in this house can deny that land redistribution has been moving too slowly.

"The government has set a target of redistributing 30% of agricultural land to the previously disadvantaged by 2014. As of June this year, only 3% had been redistributed," she said.

Avoiding desperate measures

"We want to avoid the problems that have occurred in Zimbabwe - that 20 years after liberation, land redistribution remained incomplete.

"We want to avoid a situation where, because land reform has taken too long, the government and the people must resort to desperate measures.

"Indeed, we can learn, and everybody across the divide can learn how we can avoid these experiences (as in Zimbabwe) so that we can truly heal our land. Is that so bad to learn?" asked Mlambo-Ngcuka.

"What we have learnt is that our approach is right. It is just slow.

"That is the biggest lesson for all of us, that we must do everything that we can and we must do it faster.

"And, in the interests of saving the taxpayers' money, I don't think we should continue points-scoring about this issue. I think the point has been made," she said.

- SAPA