“If every Farmers’ Union can establish only one upcoming farmer successfully, we will be 100% further ahead than we are now,” said Agri SA’s land affairs chairperson Dr Theo de Jager at Free State Agriculture’s annual congress. De said although 88% of Limpopo is under claim, South Africa is yet to see one example of successful land restitution. In total the Free State has a mere 132 land claims – half of the number the Tzaneen area of Limpopo has. Of these, 106 are rural. De Jager stressed the fact that all municipalities would have to transfer 30% of land and that the vast number of land claims in Limpopo and Mpumalanga would not subsidise Free State or other provinces with fewer claims. T o those sceptical about the success of land reform, De Jager said it should be noted that the country had only been busy with land restitution for nine years. “You cannot change a whole agricultural sector within nine years!”
The pointed out. De said farmers should realise that agriculture accounts for only about 2% or 3% of South Africa’s economy, which makes land restitution a small price for politicians to pay in order to rectify past wrongs. However, as he pointed out, for commercial farmers their land is their whole world. De Jager challenged Free State farmers to help developing farmers by mentoring. When it comes to the finer details of running a farm, De believed banks could play a bigger role. These corporates, as objective third parties, could help farmers make decisions. Banks would still have an interest in the farm, as most farms are loan-driven. De Jager also gave his opinion of land claim officials in no uncertain terms, “The biggest problem with land restitution is the vast number of incompetent officials who cannot do anything right.”
Although he did say there were a few officials who worked very hard at restitution, they were few and far between. “Agri SA talks with president Thabo Mbeki about three times a year. Over the past three years we have been able to talk to Tozi Gwanya [the chief land claims commissioner] only once.” – Susan Botes
