Madam Chair, we shall support the Budget Vote again, but we would like to declare our concern about the Land Restitution and Redistribution Programme. The pace of land reform has consistently been slower than was projected. The department faces a very ambitious target of redistribution of nearly 25 million hectares of white-owned agricultural land to black people by 2014.
The Constitution correctly protects the property rights of the current landowners where there is no historical claim against the land and large- scale expropriation would not only face time-consuming and expensive legal challenges but would also damage nation building.
It is therefore problematic that there continues to be uncertainty in the department about the actual size, location and arability of state-owned land. Thank you, Chairperson.