Government has announced they are putting the new Expropriation bill on hold until further notice.The proposed bill would make it easier for government to take over land from the current property owners and redistribute it amongst non-white farmers for the purposes of farming.
Government had set a target of 30% of agricultural land to be black owned by 2014.At this stage it stands at only 4%.Government is blaming the slow progress on white farmers,stating that they were not willing to accept the offers made on the land and that a willing buyer seller setup was not working.The farm owners are unhappy and say that the offers made are far under market value.
The new Expropriation bill was viewed as unconstitutional even by parliaments legal advisors,because it would have prevented the farm owners from taking legal recourse in the courts.This is the reason it has been shelved for now.
The land is to be redistributed amongst those whose land was forcibly taken from them,either by the Apartheid regime or British colonialism.
The bill may reappear in the next parliament,but government is also encouraging prospective black farmers to apply for loans to purchase agricultural land.
This is a tough subject and hopefully a resolution will be reached soon.
