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1 - 8 July 2014
Issue 572
41433
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FARM WORKERS TO GET ‘HALF THE LAND’? | A new government proposal suggests that all farmland is to be split up equally between present owners and current labourers. But who is going to get the short end of the stick in this proposed deal - and who will gain?
by sertan sanderson Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti made some provocative remarks in parliament on Tuesday, telling the National Assembly that the current state of affairs relating to the issue of land reform was in his view “unsustainable”. “We have been bending over backwards as black people. It is time that all of us took responsibility for progress, for South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white,” Nkwinti told MPs, while reaping widespread support. Nkwinti made his statements in relation to recent proposals that call for farmers to release half their land to be given away to their workers. The premise of the proposals, which is based on a policy paper published by the government in February 2014 entitled “Strengthening the Relative Rights of People Working the Land”, has been causing outrage among white farmers in South Africa, prompting harsh reactions especially among Afrikaner groups, who historically have been associated with farming. The official document suggests that the way forward to settle the gridlocked affairs of land reform and land restitution would be to grant workers ownership of half of the land on which they
| PRINCESS OF POP: Since the release of her first album more than 15 years ago, South African singer Nádine has sold more than 500 000 albums. Come and experience Nádine at an intimate showcase for top music industry professionals in London on 8th and 10th July. See page 6 for details of how to secure a pair of limited tickets
are employed – as long as their employment has been associated with the same farm for at least ten years. This would leave the historical owners of land to keep the other half. Under the controversial proposal, the government does not intend
to pay the historical owners any compensation for wilfully redistributing half of their land, but aims to invest into a complicated fund intended to develop these new plots of land instead, which in each instance will be financed to the exact equivalent of the market
value of the taken land. Profits from this fund will reportedly benefit all stakeholders in the land in the form of dividends, which includes the historical owners of land as well
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