Land redistribution: Freedom Front Plus bewildered by R4.7bn allocated to land reform

Author: Paul Vecchiatto

BUDGET allocations for land reform will be dependent on the Departments of Rural Development and Land Reform, and of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries rationalising their projects to ensure greater efficiencies.

In his budget speech on Wednesday, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said that in the medium term, land reform would be allocated R4.7bn.

In his speech, Mr Nene said that since the inception of the recapitalisation and development programme in 2008, 1,459 farms had received support from the government and that 4.3-million hectares had been acquired for redistribution.

A further 1.2-million hectares would be acquired over the next three years.

However, Mr Nene did not say how much the new acquisitions would cost the state, and there was no mention of the costs in the estimates of national expenditure either.

Mr Nene said the establishment of the office of the valuer-general in Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti’s office, would assist with the orderly implementation of land acquisition and redistribution.

On Tuesday Mr Nkwinti said the appointment of the land valuer-general would be made before the end of March.

Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder described the amount of R4.7bn allocated to land reform as being a drop in the ocean.

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