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THE PRESIDENCY:Â REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
Private Bag X1000, Pretoria, 0001
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLYÂ
QUESTION NO. 1197Â
DATE PUBLISHED: 11 September 2009Â
DATE SUBMITTED: 19 October 2009Â
1197. The Leader of the Opposition to ask the President:
Whether he can elaborate on the reasons why he made certain statements
(details furnished) regarding the effectiveness of the willing buyer,
willing seller model; if not, why not; if so, what are these
reasons?        NW1536EÂ
REPLY:
The Constitution places an onus on government to bring about land reform
and equitable access to all South Africaâs natural resources.
Land redistribution is an important element of this responsibility.Â
The willing buyer, willing seller approach to land redistribution has
proven incapable on its own of achieving land redistribution at a
sufficient pace.
Against the original target of redistributing at least 30% of agricultural
land by 2014, only about 5% of land has been redistributed to date.
Although a marked improvement was achieved with the emergence of the Land
Redistribution for Agricultural Development sub-programme in 2001, the pace
of delivery is still too slow. Â
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It is for these reasons that we believe that alternative means of land
acquisition should be investigated to ascertain how the land redistribution
process can be accelerated and sustained. Â
The Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform is attending to the
matter. It will be important that all stakeholders are involved in
developing an approach that ensures effective and accelerated land
redistribution takes place. Â