“We will no longer waste time negotiating with people who refuse to see the transformation of our country.
“From now on we will only negotiate for six months and if all fails, expropriation would take place,” Minister Xingwana said at the launch of the annual report of Limpopo’s Land Claims Commission.
The Minister said government had taken many years, in some instances up to five years, to negotiate with land owners who were not cooperative.
Apart from challenging the validity of land claims, land owners often refused offers presented to them by the commissioner, opting for “unrealistic prices” for their land, Xingwana said.
Regarding the current state of land reform in Limpopo, Xingwana said the predominantly rural profile of the province contributed to a situation where claims took long to be processed.
“Most of the claims here are rural and that is more challenging as compared to urban ones.”
In Limpopo alone, about 3654 claims were lodged by the cut off date of December 31, 1998.
To date, 73% of these claims have been finalised, with only 972 outstanding.
By February this year 89% of all claims lodged countrywide were settled. This translates into 71 589 claims being settled, out of the 79 696 which were lodged.
Of the 8107 outstanding claims, 6975 were rural while 1132 were in urban areas.
Government aims to transfer about 30% of the country’s land to blacks by 2014.
Xingwana said although the Commission had targeted to settle all outstanding land claims by 2008, it had to leave behind a legacy of sustainable settlement.
She said the Commission had developed a ten-year implementation strategy to ensure sustainable restoration which included capacity-building and training beneficiaries to use their land productively.
This comes after it was established that most new land owners lacked capacity and skill to use their land economically.
“We want to see agriculture remaining a prosperous sector which will continue to contribute to our country’s economic growth,” the Minister said.
She also called on established farmers to come on board and form partnerships with new land owners to transfer skills in order for the land to remain productive.
The Minister also touched on the scrapping of the willing-buyer willing-seller principle, which was seen to be slowing down the land reform process.
“This was necessary because our experience is that most of the time there was no willing buyer.”
Among areas looked at in the review process, was the policy and legislation underpinning land and agrarian reform and the efficacy of the principle as a basis for acceleration of land delivery, she said. – BuaNews
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