permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4273890.stm>
        
Last Updated: Friday, 23 September 2005, 04:36 GMT 05:36 UK
S African white farm to be seized
Landless South Africans calling for land reform, July 2005
South Africa's landless have been calling for swifter land reform
South Africa says it will for the first time force a white farmer to 
sell his land under a redistribution plan.

The decision was announced by the Commission on Restitution of Land 
Rights, set up to return to black people land lost under apartheid.

An official said talks to agree on a price for the farm had failed and 
the farmer has vowed to challenge the move.

South Africa's government says it wants to hand over about a third of 
white-owned farm land by 2014.

The commission on Thursday said an expropriation notice would be served 
on Hannes Visser, the owner of a cattle and crop farm in North West 
province.

The government offered to buy the 500-hectare (1,250-acre) farm for 
$275,000 but Mr Visser said it was worth almost twice as much.

'Too slow'

Mr Visser told the South African news agency Sapa he intended to fight 
the decision in court.

"Should the courts turn out to be my final recourse, I will go that 
route," he said.

        
Two-thirds of the country... remains in the hands of less than 60,000 
people who unfortunately in this case are white farmers
Blessing Mphela
Regional land claims commissioner

The government argues that Mr Visser's father bought the land from a 
black farmer through a forced transaction in 1968.

Regional land claims commissioner Blessing Mphela said the seizure was a 
last resort.

But he added that South Africa must speed up land reform or face chaos.

Eighty per cent of agricultural land is owned by white South Africans, 
who make up only 10% of the population - the legacy of apartheid laws.

Since coming to power in 1994, the current government has adopted a 
"willing buyer, willing seller" approach to land redistribution, paying 
market prices for land that white owners are prepared to sell, and then 
distributing it to landless blacks.

But in July Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said this approach 
was not working.

"The pace of reform has been negatively influenced by the willing 
'buyer, willing seller approach'," she said.