TAU warnings on land reform proposals

According to TAU SA president Louis Meintjies government officials appear to have a single objective to expropriate farmland from legitimate owners and warned that re-opening land claims, combined with possible changes to the constitution could result in farmers losing their land.

He warned that South Africa could face severe shortages if farmers were threatened or forced off their land.

He was commenting on suggestions from Gugile Nkwinti that the ruling ANC would change South Africa's constitution if it proved to be a hinderance to land reform programmes that are required in this country.

Nkwinti told a parliamentary portfolio committee that the constitution should "help the community advance" and if that "gets stalled it must be changed."

"Trajectory of land reform"

He was presenting the recently released green paper on land reform to the committee. The paper suggests that two bodies, Land Valuer-General and the Land Management Commission are established to improve what it calls "the trajectory of land reform".

According to the green paper the Land Management Commission would be an autonomous body that would have advisory, regulatory and auditing functions but it would not be independent and would be controlled by the Department of Rural Affairs and Land Reform.

The Land Valuer-General would set up as a statutory office to value land for rating and tax purposes and would determine the level of financial compensation paid to farmers if land was expropriated in terms of the Expropriation Act.

Nkwinti says that the proposals are based on ideology rather than patterns of ownership.

Read the Green Paper on Land Reform.
Read more on the Transvaal Agricultural Union.