Ethno-Net Database: RSA

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President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday that the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress will meet on Monday to discuss the political tension between the two parties.

Speaking at an imbizo at Tugela Ferry, Mbeki said the talks will strengthen cooperation between the two parties.

"During the elections the two parties must agree that they will work in such a way that the people in KwaZulu-Natal are able to vote for any party without fear of being intimidated," Mbeki said.

Earlier on Thursday, Mbeki's convoy was brought to a halt by about 150 IFP supporters carrying traditional weapons.

There was a tense stand-off as police turned protesters away from the field where the imbizo was being held. This later ended when police allowed the IFP supporters on to the field one by one after searching them.

Mbeki said he and IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi agreed that violence must not be allowed to mar the election and both agreed that violence must end.

"We all fought for this freedom. There is no reason for violence in the province. When we fought for freedom we fought for peace," Mbeki said.

As campaigning for this year's general election kicked off, the South African media has reported rising fears of a resurgence of political violence in KwaZulu-Natal.

The province, on the east coast of the country, is dominated by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and has been identified as a key election target by the ruling Africa National Congress (ANC). It was the scene of bitter fueding between the two parties in the 1980s and early '90s that left thousands of people dead.

At the weekend there were reports of political clashes near the coastal town of Port Shepstone, where three people were injured in an IFP march. The party issued a statement saying its members had been attacked, and the ANC in turn accused Inkatha of leading a "provocative illegal march". Over the same weekend, nine people were killed in a township outside the port city of Durban, which, reports claimed, were politically motivated. The police and both parties denied a political link to the murders.

However, political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi told IRIN the results of recent pre-election opinion polls indicating that the ANC would win "might have caused panic in some IFP structures, while casting a triumphalist air in the ANC camp. I think a combination of the two has led to the raising of political temperatures in the province."

KwaZulu-Natal is currently ruled by a coalition government comprising the IFP, ANC and Democratic Alliance (DA). Supporters of the DA are drawn mainly from minority communities in South Africa. The province is one of two which has eluded the ANC since it assumed power in 1994.

Professor Laurence Piper at the University of Natal said this year's poll "is going to be the most closely contested election ever".

Piper, an authority on the IFP, described the election as a "watershed one" for the party. He said Inkatha "had more reason to disrupt the elections than the ANC. If the IFP lose this election they are finished politically, as the province is the only power base for the party."

However, he was "quite optimistic" that the intensity of any unrest would be quite low. "The political violence - if there is any - will not be organised. It is going to be localised, because none of the parties want to project the stereotypical image of the province as backward, constantly ravaged by political violence."

Matshiqi commented that the manner in which politicians from either side conducted themselves in the run-up to the elections could influence the level of violence in the province.

National representatives of the IFP and the ANC denied reports of peace talks, supposedly held on Tuesday in Durban. The ANC's Smuts Ngonyama and the IFP's Musa Zondi said the meeting, one of many that have taken place since 1998 to stabilise relations between the two parties, did not discuss "peace nor violence, or any pact ahead of the elections."

Zondi said: "Not a single ANC or IFP member has died of any political clashes - so why raise the issue? It was a normal meeting."

Ngonyama concurred with Zondi: "It is too early to predict if there will be political violence. There was an incident where a poster of the president [Thabo Mbeki] was torn last week, but it is difficult to say what is politically motivated."

A spokesman for the KwaZulu-Natal police, Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo, commented: "Compared to the level of political tension that existed pre-1994, there is calm in the province. No incidents of politically motivated killings have been reported so far. After investigating the incident where a poster of the state president was torn down, we learnt the culprits had taken it down to use it to strengthen the roof their dwelling."

However, provincial leaders of both the main contending parties admit tension in the province is rising.

According to the IFP's Blessed Gwala, "There are high levels of political intimidation in the province." He claimed that the launch of their election campaign outside Durban two weeks ago was disrupted when a car belonging to an IFP member of the provincial parliament was smashed and a supporter beaten up. "We did not interfere with the ANC's launch, held a week earlier than ours in Pietermariztburg," he added.

The ANC safety and security spokesman in the province, Bheki Cele, admitted that "there were pockets in the province where there was high political intimidation", but maintained that reports of political killings were "exaggerated."

Concerns over voter apathy appeared to have been allayed after 1.3 million eligible South Africans turned out at the weekend to add their names to the electoral rolls ahead of general elections scheduled for later this year.

"The second registration drive proved very successful and we are pleased with the turnout, which surpassed all expectations," Pansy Tlakula, chief electoral officer of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), told IRIN.

The campaign was aimed at people who had never registered as voters, and those who had moved from one voting district to another. During the first registration drive in November last year only around three percent of the estimated number of potential but unregistered voters were entered on the voters' roll.

In view of these results, the IEC admitted that it would have preferred a higher turnout and moved to hold a second voter registration weekend.

The initial poor showing ignited a debate over whether South Africans - especially the youth - had become complacent about their hard-won democracy, but preliminary results from the 25 and 26 February effort showed that some 59 percent of people who turned up at the 17,000 voting stations were between 18 and 25 years old.

"Contrary to speculation, the youth in this country remain committed to sustaining democracy and the latest figures show this. The IEC has always said that there is no scientific basis for claims made by some commentators that South African voters, especially the youth, are no longer interested in democracy," Tlakula noted.

She remarked that many young people checked their registration details via cell phone and internet technology, as well as on the toll-free IEC telephone number. "We tried to make the process as efficient as possible, so that eligible voters do not feel inconvenienced."

Unlike the first round, there was a greater turnout in urban areas. "The IEC campaign had specifically targeted urban residents, and this ... worked. Of the 1.3 million who registered at the weekend, 67 percent live either in the metro areas, or in areas classified as urban," Tlakula said.

South Africa had 19.4 million names on the electoral roll prior to the second registration weekend, of a total of around 27.4 million potential voters.

The IEC has stressed that people will still be able to register at municipal offices until at least February 11, when President Thabo Mbeki is expected announce the election date in parliament.

Johannesburg - South Africa's Communal Land Rights Bill is unconstitutional and misconceived, according to human rights groups, legal practitioners and gender campaigners.

The Bill, they say, will be impossible to implement. They say it will entrench and aggravate the existing inequality of women with regards to land rights.

As in other African countries, like Zimbabwe and Kenya, the South African government is under increasing pressure to intervene and secure land rights. The approach it has adopted in the new Bill, which is expected to be enacted by April, is to transfer title from the state to communities.

The government will also transfer the responsibility for land administration from itself onto tribal authorities or traditional councils.

Academic Aninka Claassens told a recent Women's Legal Centre Conference in Cape Town that the Bill is not about land rights and development for poor people. Rather, she says, it is about a pre-election pact with the rural elites.

The Bill, she says, is also about an attempt to absolve the State of the responsibility and expense for sorting out the mess of land rights in communal areas that it inherited from colonialism and apartheid.

”If this Bill is enacted rural people will no longer be able to enforce their land rights against the State. They must enforce their rights against 'communities'. Furthermore, communal land will become privately owned, and it is notoriously difficult for poor people living on private land, to secure services or development from the State. Like it or not, government departments do not invest on privately owned land as all assets attach to the land become the property of the private landowner,” she says.

Claassens says as long as the State is the owner of the land, it remains responsible not just for services and development in the rural areas, but also for land rights in communal areas and for ensuring that these rights are administered effectively.

According to the Bill, the title deeds to the land would be vested in the 'community' which is expected to establish a land administration committee to decide who gets land. This function can also be carried out by an existing recognised traditional council. The Minister of Lands would initiate a 'land rights enquiry' and designate a person as a 'land rights enquirer'. On the basis of the report submitted by the enquirer, the Minister would determine which land should be transferred to the community and how. ”The bill bears a close resemblance to the apartheid land legislation of the past in that communities have no voice. The Minister has unfettered discretionary power to make decisions that impact on people's land rights and chiefs are brought to the centre stage,” says Claassens.

In the Bill, there is nothing to guide or limit the Minister's discretion to decide whether pre-existing rights can or cannot be secured. And there is nothing to guide or limit his or her discretion on who would qualify under what circumstances and for what comparable redress, she says.

”It is very unlikely that this clause would pass constitutional muster. The Constitution does not require an individual to decide the extent of rights and comparable redress. It requires an Act of Parliament to do so,” says Claassens.

Lawyer Gilbert Marcus, in a submission to the South African Human Rights Commission, concludes that the Bill as a whole is constitutionally deficient.

The Bill, he says, does not give people whose tenure is insecure as a result of past racially discriminatory laws or practices the right to secure tenure of comparable redress.

Geoff Budlender of the Legal Resources Centre - in a submission on behalf of the Commission of Gender Equality to the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs - says the Bill strengthens and reinforces the results of a discriminatory system which has conferred primary rights on men and only secondary and derivative rights on women. It does not, he says, protect women against discrimination and does not explicitly prohibit practices which discriminate against women.

”For example, the bill places key administrative powers in the hands of bodies on which women are in a permanent minority and which, in the past, have been primary agents of discrimination in relation to land administration and allocation. In my opinion, the Bill has a further and related fundamental flaw which arises from the double discrimination which African women suffer. The fact that the insecure tenure held by African women is not only because they are women it is also because they are African,” states Budlender. At the moment, the state holds title to most communal land and various people have rights to use and occupy particular areas. In many instances current tenure rights derive from a trustee/beneficiary relationship between the state and land uses.

”Much of the land in the communal areas is held in trust by the Minister on behalf of black people who have rights against the Minister as Trustee. Tribal Authorities played a key role in that they recommended who should be allocated land at village level. However, only the Commissioner, as a government official, had the power to actually allocate land,” says Claassens.

She says the system was undermined when the Department of Justice withdrew administrative functions from the Magistrates in the late 1980s. It fell into chaos after independence in 1994 with the incorporation of the Bantustans' administrations into various government departments.

Claassens says in most instances aspects of the old land administration were split into different departments. Nobody wanted to pick up responsibility for making a discriminatory and anachronistic system run smoothly.

”In most provinces now, nobody has the legal power to allocate land rights. Double and disputed land allocations are the order of the day. Illegal and informal land sales are increasingly common. There is a serious and deepening crisis concerning land rights and land allocations in communal areas which is impacting negatively on rural poverty. One of the results is that investors avoid these areas, as it is almost impossible to establish who has what rights and how to deal with in negotiations concerning development,ÿ
94 she says.

Claassens has called on the government not to enact the bill but to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new approach which is easier to implement. The approach, she says, will also address the burning problems of securing and supporting communal land rights.

”Rather than focusing on transferring title and registering rights, both of which are extremely expensive and likely to backfire, the government should start by securing underlying rights and putting into place processes to unpack and confirm higher content rights on an incremental basis, as and when necessary,” she says.

This approach, says Claassens, would require extensive support from government at local level over many years. It would entail ongoing government subsidisation and support for fair and responsive systems of land rights administration, she adds.

Critics say the government has been slow in transferring land to black people. After the end of apartheid in 1994, the government promised to transfer 30 percent of white-owned land to landless black people in five years.

But the government has ruled out Zimbabwe-style land grabbing. President Robert Mugabe's government has seized land from 4,500 white farmers to resettle landless black Zimbabweans.

The African National Congress is targeting white, coloured and Indian voters in Gauteng and the Western Cape to break what the party sees as the opposition's stranglehold on minorities.

Support of minorities for the ANC in the past two elections has been negligible, prompting the new strategy. According to ANC spokesperson Steyn Speed, activities in the two provinces are part of a national campaign to make inroads into minority communities.

The campaign has already begun in Gauteng, where a task team has been appointed to run house meetings and organise supermarket campaigning and ward meetings in minority areas.

In the Western Cape, ANC provincial leader Ebrahim Rasool remained upbeat this week about the province's racial atmosphere, saying there are "encouraging signs of goodwill". Feedback from white communities indicated a break with "the divisive politics of the past", even if they decided to "skip this election".

"We [the ANC] are not leaving any area uncontested, even the white communities. [They] are in need of a new dispensation, new politics. We will never be accused of not taking our message there," he said.

However, the Western Cape ANC makes no bones about the fact that its primary constituency is the coloured and African working class. And in the demographic make-up of the province - dramatically different from other provinces, due to apartheid-era coloured preferential policies - more than half the province's 4,5-million residents are coloured, with 28% African and around 15% white.

In Gauteng, the ANC has in the past few months established branches in traditionally conservative areas such as Pretoria, Krugersdorp, Sandton and Randburg.

Gauteng minister of safety Nomvula Mokonyane, who heads the provincial organising and mobilisation unit, said the ANC had failed in the past to communicate directly with these voters; as a result, the Democratic Alliance had given them a distorted view of the party.

"Our focus on this campaign is to explain to them why they should vote ANC; why the ANC is their home. All ward councillors have to present report-backs on what the ANC has done for the past 10 years. We do not want the DA to be our spokesperson," Mokonyane said.

The ANC said the biggest misconception it found during interaction with these communities was a view that the ANC was a black organisation that cared for blacks only.

"Some also felt that the ANC was there to lower their standard of life and expose them to situations like violent crime.

"But we also found many who wanted to identify with change, who joined in big numbers. Many business people came forward and said they supported the government's economic policies.

"We will only be satisfied if we have a branch in every ward and we have reached most individuals ... I am confident that we will not receive less than 40% in all of these minority areas."

The ANC has relied heavily on former members of white parties - such as former education minister Sam de Beer and National Party stalwart Jogie Boers, who are members of the provincial legislature.

"We have succeeded in our campaign because we had credible and prominent people. We also have old comrades such as Ismail Vadi, who have made sure we've got a branch in each and every Indian area in the province," said Mokonyane.

"We have not used discredited people like the DA has done, where it went into townships and used discredited people to target blacks."

At the Gauteng ANC manifesto launch, a smattering of white faces were seen, including Jakobus "Ogies" van der Berg, who joined the party in September last year.

"I joined the ANC because it is the only organisation that looks after all people ... I trust the ANC," Van der Berg said.

The ANC claimed this campaign has caused jitters in the opposition, but the DA said the ANC was unlikely to make any headway.

Said DA provincial leader Ian Davidson: "According to our own research, this ANC campaign has very little prospect of success. Their support among whites is very low and among Indians and coloureds, it is on the wane. They are welcome to join us and compete for votes. But we will be focusing on the non-traditional bases.

"Research has indicated that we might get around 10% support from black people, which is very encouraging. In the last election we only had about 2% from the townships. But the ANC must not forget its own backyard in the townships."

The lack of sufficient post-transfer support for beneficiaries of land redistribution in South Africa could derail the country's land reform programme, say researchers.

Two recent studies have pointed to a gap between land redistribution and agrarian development, as the country attempts to address the land ownership imbalances of apartheid.

The first report, a scoping study of freehold and farming communities in South Africa, was conducted on behalf of the British Department of International Development (DFID) Southern Africa. The second was conducted by the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), based at the University of the Western Cape. Both studies were concluded in September 2003.

PLAAS researcher Ruth Hall told IRIN that post-transfer support "is such a central issue that it could either make or break land reform in South Africa".

The DFID-funded study noted that "beneficiaries identified a critical need for agricultural training, finance and funding for production, farming equipment and greater access to project- related information". This report was compiled by McIntosh Xaba and Associates.

It found that "despite the fact that most current land reform beneficiaries - and black rural households in general - are involved in grazing and dry-land cropping, the key focus of most rural development NGOs and state agencies is on craft production, organic farming and the marketing of high-value crops."

Both the government and NGOs needed to reorient themselves around appropriate support for sustainable livelihoods among land reform beneficiaries.

Hall said that while "agricultural extension services and access to markets have existed for decades for the white commercial farming sector, those support systems are now not available for [mostly small-scale] black farmers".

The PLAAS report, compiled by researcher Peter Jacobs, found that "as the process of land delivery moves ahead, challenges facing newly settled farmers are beginning to emerge more clearly".

These challenges were unearthed by three quality-of-life surveys conducted by the Department of Land Affairs.

"They indicated a lack of post-transfer support was one of the biggest stumbling blocks in assisting small farmers to make productive use of the land. In the absence of post-transfer support, a lot of people abandoned the land and went back to the cities," Jacobs told IRIN.

In August 2001 the state initiated the Land Redistribution and Agricultural Development Programme, in a bid to remedy these problems. "But did it address these problems? The short answer is, no it did not," said Jacobs. "There's no specific funding or budget for agricultural extension services for land reform projects."

He explained that agricultural extension services would offer advice to small farmers on how to "improve farming techniques, and of being aware of weather conditions and the type of crops to farm, as well as vaccines for livestock etc".

Small farmers currently had to obtain these services from the private sector, which was generally geared towards large-scale commercial farming, and therefore did not have the necessary knowledge and experience to assist small-scale farmers - many of whom could also not afford such services.

"The concern has been raised that the land reform programme has focussed primarily on the transfer of land," said Hall, "there's concern that the transfer of land sometimes tends to be the end of a process, rather than start of a longer-term process." Official reviews had identified this as "a key gap that inherently limits the potential for land reform in promoting viable livelihoods and rural development".

The PLAAS report noted that "agrarian restructuring is not sustainable if post-settlement support to land reform beneficiaries is lacking. At the policy level there has been virtually no progress, beyond acknowledging the need for such support".

Ad hoc arrangements were currently filling this space with limited success, without any institution assuming responsibility for integrating these efforts.

Hall explained that "even though [land reform and rural development] fall under one ministry, there are two separate departments - one dealing with land reform, and one with the agrarian development component". This meant there was a "disjuncture between land reform and post-transfer support ... a lack of alignment between people getting land, and then getting support to develop the land".

The PLAAS report added that "resources are not effectively mobilised to address the multiple needs of land reform beneficiaries".

"A comprehensive post-transfer support policy, based on a planned and integrated approach, is required to ensure that land and agrarian reform can contribute to sustainable rural livelihoods," the report concluded.

Penuell Maduna, the Justice Minister, has handed over symbolic cheques of R30 000 to three families involved in the Boipatong and Sharpville massacres in the Vaal Triangle.

The cheques were some of the first in terms of what the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) had recommended as reparations for Apartheid victims. The commission had recommended payment to at least 22 000 families.

Sekhomathane Bakana (82) was one of the people Maduna handed a cheque of R30 000. Bakana was part of the group protesting against the pass laws in Sharpville in 1960. More than 60 people were killed and scores injured when police opened fire on the protesters. Bakana was severely assaulted in the process. When the TRC was set up just after the first democratic elections, he was among the victims who went before the Commission to tell their stories. He is happy that he has finally been compensated.

Ntsoaki Chenene (61) has also received her compensation cheque. She was shot in the leg during the anti-pass campaign. Although Ntsoaki is happy with the reparations, she says the money will not heal her wounds.

More than 10 000 cheques have been issued to victims of human rights violations. Maduna says they chose to issue the three symbolic cheques to families in the Vaal because of the important part Sharpville and Boipatong has played in the history of the country. He says his department will embark on a campaign to encourage victims who may not be aware of the cheques to collect theirs. He says there will be no cut-off date for the issuing of cheques.

Pietermaritzburg - The economy is not sufficiently competitive and needs to be governed in a more liberal manner that will enable it to grow.

This is the position of the Inkatha Freedom Party, which launched its manifesto on Sunday at Lindelani, north of Durban, under the theme "Let?s make a difference". The launch came amid reports of violent incidents.

Members of the IFP who were putting up posters for the rally in the ANC stronghold of Claremont were allegedly attacked. According to police spokesperson Director Bala Naidoo, a man identified only as Mr Ndwandwe was putting up the posters when shots were fired at him. Ndwandwe was not injured, but his vehicle was reportedly smashed during the attack.

Buthelezi announced at the rally that IFP MP Thomas Shabalala`s car was also attacked in kwaDabeka, Claremont, while Shabalala was mobilising people to attend the IFP rally.

Asked about this case, Naidoo said he had not received a report mentioning Shabalala's name.

There were further incidents surrounding one of two ANC rallies also on Sunday. Naidoo said six mobile "VIP" toilets hired for the rally in Umlazi's T section were burnt on Saturday night.

Police said an ANC member was shot dead at Magabheni in Umkhomazi on his way home from the Umlazi ANC rally.

Naidoo said the man was shot at by two armed men. One of the suspects was allegedly apprehended by members of the public, who assaulted and stabbed him.

Two suspects were arrested in connection with the incident and two firearms were confiscated.

Praise for Manuel Speaking during the IFP manifesto launch rally, party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi said the country has one of the best finance ministers ever - Trevor Manuel. However, Buthelezi said the economy is not taking shape - which indicates that economic policies need to be reviewed.

He said: "We cannot continue to fool ourselves and must accept that what has been done thus far has not attracted any significant direct foreign investments.

"Our country is not sufficiently competitive and its economy has not been governed in a manner which can liberalise its market forces and make it a player in the global markets."

If the current situation remains the same for the next five years, he said, the country's position in the world will continue to deteriorate.

"It took a domestic rebellion and an international campaign to convince the ruling party [ANC] to accept the obvious need to provide anti-retroviral drugs to those who need them," Buthelezi told the more than 15 000 party supporters who flocked to the area that borders kwaMashu and Ntuzuma.

He added that the roll-out plan of anti-retroviral drugs has been spoken about by the ANC-led government for years and yet the process has not begun in spite of people dying by "tens of thousands or suffering by the millions".

Corruption Buthelezi also charged that the past five years have been an age of corruption under the government.

He accused the government of allowing the perception to flourish that people can become corrupt with impunity.

He said the party's manifesto seeks to substitute the enrichment of the few by the empowerment of many.

Buthelezi also lashed out at poverty alleviation programmes, saying they have done little or nothing to alleviate poverty.

The party`s manifesto suggests a partnership between government, communities, private sector and non-governmental organisations to develop needy communities.

While the party was holding its national rally, the ANC also convened a rally in Ntuzuma, just two kilometres away. Another ANC rally was held in Section T in Umlazi.

Buthelezi called for calm tolerance and peace in the country during campaigns for the next elections.

The African National Congress in Gauteng said on Thursday it will take its election campaign to white areas to ensure it increases its support.

The provincial party's head of elections, Paul Mashatile, said in Johannesburg: "We will do this confidently because our record speaks for itself. We have done well as government in the province and delivered services to the people."

The party will launch its provincial election manifesto and election campaign on Sunday at Orlando Stadium.

The manifesto is the same as the one launched in Durban by party and national President Thabo Mbeki on Sunday.

Mashatile said: "The ANC in Gauteng will win the elections again in the province with more than 68% of the votes it got in 1999. We are positive that we will repeat our overwhelming win of 1999."

Mashatile said the party will work hard to increase its support among white, coloured and Indian voters.

He spoke confidently about the province's achievement since 1994, saying "the ANC government has done a lot in the past 10 years towards good governance, social development, economic development and political stability.

He said the election campaign for the ANC does not start now but started after the 1999 elections.

"Our machinery have been in place. We have visited homes, spoken to the people and know what they want," Mashatile said.

He said since July 2003, the party's campaign workers have visited more than a million homes to talk about voter registration.

He said more homes will be visited in the next few weeks to prepare voters for the elections.

The launch will be addressed by Premier Mbhazima Shilowa and the keynote address will be delivered by Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

The Landless People's Movement (LPM) lamented on Thursday what it described as a grotesque distortion of its programmes by the media, and denied it had any violent or lawless intentions.

"The LPM has no paramilitary units nor camps, nor does it have any plans to form paramilitary units, nor to launch 'revenge attacks' or any other 'vigilante' action against abusive white farmers or any other landowners," it said in a statement.

"The LPM is a non-violent, rights-based movement struggling for comprehensive land and agrarian reform for the country's 26-million poor and landless people.

"The LPM believes there is a war in the South African countryside, but it is a one-sided war waged by unrepentant, abusive white farmers against poor and defenceless black farm dwellers whose only recourse is to a rural criminal injustice system dominated by the interests and alliances of white farmers."

All its activities, the movement said, were aimed at putting pressure on the government to speed up land redistribution through legislative and policy changes.

The solution, the LPM added, was a "comprehensive redistribution" of land from 60 000 white farmers controlling 85 percent of the land.

"Legal and constitutional land expropriation is a common phenomenon in all democracies and the LPM regrets the alarmist response that its use in post-colonial societies elicits from many commentators."

Recent reports have quoted the LPM as threatening to create a people's army for self defence unless the government protected farmworkers from abuse by their employers.

It has called on its members not to vote in this year's general elections, and has reportedly warned of farm invasions if the government does not make haste with land restitution.

"Land restitution process gives fears of another Zimbabwe" (Mariette le Roux)

The restitution of land to those previously dispossessed of it will not result in a stoppage of agricultural production in South Africa, the Land Claims Commission said on Wednesday.

Fears to this effect are being propagated by a minority "who believe that if you give land to blacks nothing will happen on that land", said chief land claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya.

The government needs strategic partners to make the process work, and there are many commercial farmers committed to helping build a new generation of agriculturists, he said.

The Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU) stands by its contention that restitution claims have been lodged for at least 70% of commercial farming land in Limpopo and Mpumalanga -- the two provinces with the highest percentage of claims.

This was disputed by Gwanya, who said about 20% of commercial agricultural land has been claimed nationally -- and up to 50% in the two provinces.

He also rejected the union's claim that failed restitution projects have cost the country millions of rands. There have been some problems - but these have been overshadowed by the successes.

He could not give figures in this regard, but said "it is definitely not millions".

The commission is at pains to ensure that claimants intend putting the land to good use, Gwanya said. A viable land use plan is important, though not a prerequisite.

The government assists upcoming farmers with a settlement planning grant and training programmes.

"Once a claim has been validated there has to be a careful balancing act [between the interests of the claimants and the future of the land]," Gwanya said.

TAU labour and property rights manager Jack Loggenberg described the restitution process as a big flop.

"The government realises this - that is why it is increasingly trying to get current land owners involved [in development]," he said.

The union is now more concerned about the effects of restitution than ever before, given the pending enactment of an expropriation clause of the Restitution of Land Rights Act.

An amendment Bill was approved by Parliament last year, which empowers the minister of agriculture and land affairs to expropriate land without a court order.

This has the potential of ruining the country, Loggenberg said. "Property rights are the cornerstone of a freemarket system. If that is taken away or damaged, the economy of the country will go down the drain."

The TAU intends fighting the clause with all its might, and is considering legal action.

Agri SA said most successful restitution claimants have trouble with farming in the beginning. There have been some reversals in production, but no critical financial losses.

"To get a process like this under way will always cost money. It is a learning curve. But if we don't start somewhere, we will never know where we are supposed to end up."

The Democratic Alliance said restitution is important to make amends for the forced removal of people from their land by the apartheid government.

"But at the same time, productive commercial farms must be maintained to sustain the agricultural economy and ensure that South Africa is never faced with the food deficits experienced in Zimbabwe."

To ensure this, the government has to maintain the trust and cooperation of existing farmers and harness their skills. But the new expropriation legislation has done exactly the opposite, it said.

The Pan Africanist Congress said there can be no genuine liberation and democracy without the just resolution of the land question. It lamented the fate of thousands who are still landless and are evicted from land daily.

"The land question cannot be ignored forever without making what is happening in Zimbabwe look like a nice afternoon picnic," the PAC warned.

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