#StopWhiteGenocideInSA
JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s government is planning to impose limits on farm sizes to free up parcels of land to hand over to blacks, a minister said on Saturday, giving an insight into the workings of a divisive redistribution scheme.
Gugile Nkwinti, the minister of rural development and land reform, told Reuters the government was planning to set a range of limits, from a 1,000-hectare “small-scale” farm, up to the largest allowed, at 12,000 hectares.
“If you are a small-scale farm and have 1,400 HA, we will buy the 400, and leave you with your 1,000. We will buy the extra and redistribute it to BLACK PEOPLE,” the minister said.
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), facing local elections in August, has promised to speed up plans to redistribute land.
Some economists and farming groups have said the proposals could hit investment and production at a time when South Africa is emerging from a major drought - pointing to the economic damage linked to farm seizures in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
They have also complained about a lack of clarity on how it will all work.
Setting out the farm size limits and specifically linking them to the redistribution scheme may further alarm owners, particularly of smaller plots.
KRUGER COMPENSATION
“In South Africa you have a concentration of land ownership in the hands of a few people. That is something we have to correct,” Nkwinti said before a ceremony in Kruger National Park where President Jacob Zuma handed over R84 million in compensation to black communities.
Experts estimate about 8 million hectares of farmland have been transferred to black owners since the end of apartheid.
The ANC party has said it will speed up the process with a bill going through parliament allowing the state to expropriate land without the owner’s consent.
Several black communities had land claims on the 2-million hectare Kruger Park.
But the government wants to keep the Kruger, a major tourist draw and home to many animal species, intact, so its policy is to compensate those with claims on it through cash instead of allowing them to resettle in the park’s boundaries.
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