Independent Land Audit Needed

Disparities in the statistics on land ownership in recent audits have elicit mixed reactions from role players in the agriculture sector. Lloyd Phillips reports.

- Lloyd Phillips

An audit conducted by an independent entity, such as the UN, to provide South Africans with indisputable statistics on the demographics of current land ownership in the country was needed to settle disparaties. This was according to Annelize Crosby, head of land affairs at Agri SA.

Statistics from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform’s (DRDLR) land audit have been cited by President Cyril Ramaphosa and new DRDLR minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, among others, as the motivation behind government’s intention to amend the Constitution to allow land expropriation without compensation. The DRDLR’s 2017 Land Audit Report stated that about 37 million hectares of farmland in SA was owned by individuals. Of this, 72% was owned by white people, 15% by coloured people, 5% by Indians, and 4% by black people. It also stated that “nowhere in the country is the share of whites owning agricultural land less than 53%; whereas the largest size owned by Africans in a province is 270 423ha, or 17%, in KwaZulu-Natal.”

DRDLR spokesperson, Tshepo Diale, told