South Africa to review land redistribution program

The South African government is to undertake a "careful review" of factors delaying land redistribution, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday.

Mbeki told parliament in Cape Town that very little progress had been made in the program, which aims to see 30 percent of agricultural land in black hands by 2014.

"We will undertake a careful review of the inhibiting factors so that this program is urgently speeded up," he said.

He said "extra effort" was needed to deal with remaining land restitution cases, many of which, he said, were "much more complex than those already resolved.

Over 86 percent of all claims have already been dealt with; the deadline for the process, originally set as 2005, has been shifted to March next year.

Mbeki also told parliament members that the government would this year start implementing the Communal Land Rights Act in a bid to improve economic use of communal land.

At the same time it would expand assistance such as irrigation, seeds and implements to small and cooperative farmers.

The restitution of land rights is one of three bases for agrarian reform and, along with the restoration of land tenure rights, makes up the minor component of land transfer program.

As with the restitution process and the restoration of tenure to farm workers, land reform is not a simple matter of acquiring a farm and handing it over.

The process is a long haul of bureaucratic steps and is fraught with checks and balances. Most communities seek the help of law offices and nongovernment organizations.

Despite the efforts of government, civil society organizations and the communities themselves, many of the earlier reform projects have failed, with formerly thriving farms ruined and abandoned.

Consultants have identified a lack of management skill, poor access to markets and the absence of an agricultural extension service as factors contributing to the failures, and the fact that, in many cases, communities need a place to live more than they need land to farm.

Source: Xinhua