The government is considering far-reaching new proposals to expropriate half of every commercial farm in South Africa and hand it over to farm workers.
These draft proposals are contained in a document titled Final Policy Proposals for Strengthening the Relative Rights of People Working the Land, which was discussed with agricultural organisations on Monday.
According to the document which was leaked to City Press’ sister publication Rapport:
The historic owners automatically retain half of their farms. The state pays for the 50% taken for the workers.
However, the money is not paid to the current owners, but into an investment and development fund (trust) for all shareholders in the land. This is for the further development of the farm.
The motivation here is that landowners have already benefited sufficiently because of what the document calls “exploitative wages” and advantages received in the past.
The workers get shares in a farm on the basis of their contribution to the development of that farm, based on their number of years of service.
The document says these moves are designed to put into practice the conditions of the Freedom Charter, which states that people must share in the wealth of the country and that the country must be divided between those who work it…
