SAAI: Presidential report on land reform is disappointing
28 July 2019
The Southern Africa Agri-Initiative (SAAI) is disappointed with the report presented by the so-called advisory panel of land reform experts to cabinet, and at this stage wants to put forward an opposite view on key aspects of the report.
The report is obviously flawed because it is not morally justifiable that individual landowners, who legally bought their properties, should foot the bill of land reform as a national responsibility.
It avoids any reference to how agricultural financing – as one of the cornerstones of competitive primary production in South Africa – will be affected. Every farmer in South Africa runs the risk of losing a farm or two, but the banks can lose all farms that serve as security for their product financing.
SAAI is particularly disappointed with the superficial, over-simplified and one-sided version of the history of land ownership (which also contains blatant falsehoods), which was offered to ideologically justify the rest of the report. As a result, the panel and its members position themselves as inciters of division and racial tension, rather than a solution-driven influence on the land issue.