The South African Rural Development and Land Affairs minister Gugile Nkwinti has announced that at least nine out of 10 black farmers given land through the South Africa government’s land redistribution programme have failed.
This statistic shows that 90 per cent of the 5.9 million hectares of redistributed farming land was not under successful production.
A total of 224 farms redistributed as part of the programme have been identified as struggling. These include staple production units but also citrus, deciduous, mango, banana and macadamia farms.
The government has also relinquished the target of transferring 30 per cent of the country’s land to black ownership by 2014, as this would cost the country R80 billion (£7.1m). The government’s focus is now shifting to rescuing existing black farmers who have already received land and R207m has been pledged to assist them.
The minister said that in the 15 years of democracy, the restitution and redistribution programme had been handicapped by the problem of “the capacity of those who received the land to continue producing effectively and optimally on the land”.
He also warned that those who have received redistributed farmland should start production on the land to prevent further declines in agricultural output. “We will take it (back),” he warned.
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