'We will seize white farms'

2006-08-12 16:46

Polokwane - Government has warned white farmers it may seize their properties under the land restitution programme if they fail to agree to a selling price within six months.

The programme aims to hand back land to non-whites forcibly removed from their ancestral homes under apartheid, or offer them financial compensation.

The government wants 30% of farmland in black hands by 2014.

But the transfer process has been slow, with only about 4% of land transferred so far.

Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana said price wrangling was one of the main reasons for the low turnover.

"We are now going to negotiate six months - no more, no less," she said at a briefing in Limpopo on Friday.

"Indeed, we don't have time to be talking and talking for 10 years ... because already our people have been waiting.

"At least now we have ... expropriation. Therefore, we will no longer waste time negotiating with people who are not committed to transformation."

Farms have been identified

Government has been quick to dismiss comparisons with Zimbabwe, where a similar campaign was marked by violence and has been blamed for the economic meltdown of the country.

It has vowed to take a more orderly approach to addressing its apartheid and British colonial legacy.

Xingwana's department has already identified several properties to be taken over if it cannot reach agreement over price with the owners. This is the first time the government has set a time limit on such talks.

Officials stressed the option of seizure would only be used as a last resort and farmers would the right to appeal against the decision in court.

So far, 89% of the nearly 80 000 land claims lodged by the December 1998 cut-off date have been settled. The government has set a 2008 deadline to complete the process.

- Reuters