An estimated R13 billion will have to be spent by the government to complete land restitution in South Africa, Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza said on Tuesday.

She told reporters after attending the commercial agriculture working group meeting at the Union Buildings in Pretoria that this figure only considered restitution and did not include money required for land redistribution projects.

She said despite an agreement from agricultural unions that land restitution needed to be completed as quickly as possible in order not to prolong the pain and uncertainty caused by the process, there was doubt whether the December 2005 deadline set by the government would be met.

“It’s important that we remove the emotion,” Didiza said, noting that it was in everybody’s interest that the deadline be met.

But she said resource constraints might affect the deadline.

“We all agree (government and unions) that we need to work together to settle land claims but we are also aware of the fiscus constraints,” she said.

She said the possibility of external funding in order to fast track land restitution would be looked at.

President of AgriSA – the largest agricultural union in the country – Lourie Bosman said alternative solutions to solving the “bottleneck” were being discussed. But he said land expropriation would not be an option.

“Even under the expropriation system, market value (of the land) must be paid so there is no point in arguing between the free market (willing buyer willing seller) and expropriation,” he said.

Bosman said the government was bound by the South African Constitution to offer a fair price for land.

He also said a growing and stable agricultural sector was essential if land reform was to succeed.

Representing mostly emerging farmers, National African Farmers Union president Motsepe Matlala called on the government and unions to develop new and existing partnerships to ensure that the 2005
deadline was met.

“We do have partnerships and we must use them so we can move away from the painful process of land reform,” he said.

Land claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya has said that approximately 52 000 out of about 80 000 land clams had been processed.

During the meeting some farm unions were taken by surprise when the government raised the issue of gender equality.

Matlala said the government declared that it wanted to see more women of all colour involved in the decision making process of the unions.

“We did not expect this ultimatum. We are going to have to learn to work with women,” he said. – Sapa

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>