Apparently the initial target of transferring 30 percent of all farmland to black South Africans has long since been reached. It seems that only 45 percent of the remaining land still belongs to white farmers. As usual the government has no money for a land audit.
The latest figures on land reform proved the stance of organised agriculture that the free market must take its natural course. If a white farmer is willing to sell his land and a black person of substance wants to buy it, a natural transaction takes place and nationalisation and expropriation is unnecessary.
While restitution and land reform saw to it that state-owned land were transferred to black farmers, movement on the free market led to more transfers than the government’s land reform projects. Most of these projects failed with the result that many productive farms and their guarantee of food security are now unused.
The DA-led government of the Western Cape intends to succeed in 60 percent of its land reform projects. This will make no difference to the 40 percent failure. Land reform does not work because it is funded on political opportunism. An incorrect policy cannot be corrected.
Meanwhile, the ANC wants more farmland and even sent his crown prince, Julius Malema, to Zimbabwe to learn more about the occupation of land. According to the Zimbabwe Mail the ANC and Malema plan to occupy all white-owned farms after the World Cup soccer tournament.
The murder of the AWB leader, Eugene TerreBlanche, intensified the already burning political temperatures. Efforts to simply take away the farms of white owners will cause absolute conflict. The ANC will not heed any warnings and farmers must be prepared for the worst.
Where there’s Malema smoke, there’s fire.