Land reform too slow, says Zuma

2012-02-10 07:20

Cape Town - The pace of land redistribution in South Africa is "slow and tedious", President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday.

Delivering his State of the Nation address to a joint sitting of Parliament, he said there was general agreement that the willing buyer, willing seller option was not working.

"We have only distributed eight percent of the 30% target of land redistribution for 2014 that we set ourselves," Zuma said.

"The process is slow and tedious and there is general agreement that the willing buyer, willing seller option has not been the best way to address this question," he said, to loud applause from MPs.

That was why government had introduced a new policy framework, the Green Paper on Land Reform.

"We urge the public to participate in the process of improving land redistribution and reform to reverse the impact of the 1913 [Natives Land] Act," Zuma said.

This act had taken away 87% of the land from black people.

- SAPA