DA lashes out against Phumzile

2005-08-11 14:26

Johannesburg - South Africa's main opposition party on Thursday blasted deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka for saying that Pretoria should emulate Zimbabwe's controversial land reforms, and branded her advice as a recipe for disaster.

"Zimbabwe has managed to wreck and ruin a thriving agricultural economy and today it stands before the world with begging bowl in hand," said Douglas Gibson, chief whip of the Democratic Alliance (DA) party.

"South Africa can learn nothing from Zimbabwe when it comes to land reform," he said, and accused the government of trying to portray white South African farmers as "villains".

Causing a stir

Mlambo-Ngcuka caused a stir on Wednesday, when she departed from a prepared speech at a conference on distance education to say Pretoria needed to inject some "oomph" in its land reforms by taking a leaf from Zimbabwe's book.

"Land reform in South Africa has been too slow and too structured. There needs to be a bit of oomph. That's why we may need the skills of Zimbabe to help us," she said.

"On agrarian and land reform, South Africa has learnt some lessons from Zimbabwe - how to do it fast," she added.

At a national land summit in July, the South African government said it needed to come up with a "new mechanism" to meet its goal of handing over nearly a third of white-owned land to new black farmers by 2014.

'Willing buyer, willing seller' rejected

Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza said the 1 000 delegates at the gathering had rejected the current "willing seller, willing buyer" principle that has underpinned land reform since the end of apartheid in 1994.

The "willing seller, willing buyer" concept states that land owners will receive 100% market value for their land and will not be compelled to sell.

Gibson said the government was attacking the "willing seller, willing buyer" principle "to convert landowners and farmers into villains".

"There is plenty of land available (elsewhere) for sale and subsequent redistriction," he said. "The government merely needs to find the will to carry out the job successfully."

Zimbabwe's controversial land reforms began, often violently, in 2000, and saw about 4 000 white farmers evicted from their properties.

The land has been redistributed to landless blacks in a move the government has said is designed to correct imbalances created by colonial rule, when the majority of prime farmland was owned by some 4 500 whites.

But critics have blamed the reforms in part for a fall in agricultural production and severe food shortages.

- AFP