Didiza calls for conversation with land owners

16th July 2019

By: African News Agency

  

Font size: - +

Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza on Tuesday called for dialogue with land owners as the department seeks to change historically skewed ownership demographics.

"In addressing the land question and its productive use, will need a meaningful conversation with land owners, be they farmers, companies or trust. We need to be genuine and deliberate in transforming this sector. Historically, black South Africans were excluded from meaningful participation in the agricultural economy," she said in her department's budget vote speech in Parliament. 

The end result was that the agricultural food chain was concentrated in the hands of a few and that was not sustainable, she added.

We need to work together to open up the sector, create opportunities for the historically disadvantaged groups, and make a concerted effort in growing the sector on an inclusive basis.

The department was therefore developing a strategy to bring more women and young people into agricultural food production, she said.

Didiza said the department planned to "revitalise" land that was transferred through the state's restitution projects and so support emerging farmers.

According to a study by the Centre for Development and Enterprise, some 11-million hectares of freehold farm land has been redistributed through government programmes since the advent of democracy in 1994.

Parliament is due to finalise a constitutional amendment designed to speed up the process by explicitly allowing for expropriation without compensation.

Edited by African News Agency

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION