On the one hand, there is excitement about the news that the government will launch its land audit next month and, on the contrary, there is great concern about the fact that the audit is done by the government, which clearly aims to change ownership of land.
Dr. Pieter Groenewald of FF Plus said the long-awaited audit report on land could hopefully help to eliminate myths surrounding land ownership currently being misused by politicians for harmful rhetoric.
Dr. Groenewald says the report has long been considered since it will indicate what percentage of land in South Africa is owned by white, black, brown and Indians. Even the percentage owned by foreigners will be indicated.
“The report is essential, in particular, for the rhetoric used by politicians that whites own 80% of the country’s land while it is already shown that the state owns 14%.”
“The FF Plus hopes that the report will be thorough and accurate so that harmful favorite political statements can be discontinued and that action to proper factual land reform changes can be implemented,” said Dr. Groenewald.
Agricultural experts, however, are not as confident as Dr. Groenewald.
The audit has already been submitted to Cabinet and again resubmitted. Based on the information, it appears that the audit shows that whites own 70% of the land, blacks 5%, colored people 15%, Indians 6% and “other” people 4%.
There is concern about the way in which the government has been working on the audit. It is alleged that the precise determination of ownership is hampered by the deeds office that no longer uses racial classification since the ANC’s takeover. If, for that reason, the government can not determine black land ownership, how can they determine white land ownership?
TAU SA is on record that they had obtained authoritative figures several years ago, which had sketched an entirely different picture.
If the report were to show that whites owned 70% of the land, it would give the government a “justification” to initiate land expropriation without fear of market-related compensation.
Read the original article in Afrikaans on Die Vryburger
South Africa Today – South Africa News
