Recapitalisation of farms points to the failure of the land reform project

The failure of the government's land redistribution program to black owners has once again been emphasised by the announcement that the department of rural development and land reform intends to re-capitalise 730 farms this year.

The minister of rural development and land reform, Mr. Gugile Nkwinti, had already last year acknowledged that 90% of the redistributed farms had failed.

To date, the government has placed the blame for the failure on farmers by alleging that farms are in a poor state when black farmers take it over as white owners stop giving attention to the farms when the land claim is instituted.

Mr. Pieter Groenewald, the spokesperson on rural development and land reform for the Freedom Front Plus, says the reality is that the government allows the transfer of the farms to drag on due to incompetence and that banks do not want to lend money to farmers while there is a claim lodged against the farm.

"It would necessarily lead to the state of farms deteriorating. From the side of the state there isn't sufficient support for new black farmers to make a success of their enterprise," Mr. Groenewald said.

The government had in the past two years paid out approximately R826 million for the re-capitalisation of farms which had failed.

Last year R550 million was spent on recapitalisation as opposed to the R276 million which was spent in the previous financial year.

Statement issued by Mr. Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus spokesperson: Rural development and land reform, April 23 2013

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