LAND OWNERSHIP IN SOUTH AFRICA South Africa has a total surface area of 122 million hectares. As of March 2011 31 million hectares or 25% of that surface area was in the hands of the State. The remaining 91 million hectares or 75% of the surface area was privately owned. The balance of State and privately owned land varied greatly between provinces. For example in the great expanses of the Free State and the Northern Cape private owners held 89% and 91% of the surface area respectively. In both the Western Cape and Gauteng 55% was held by the State. State owned land would previously have been regarded as part of the white owned 87%. It follows then that it should now be regarded as black owned, which means that at least a quarter of the countrys surface area is in black hands. There is nothing preventing the State from handing title to much of that land to black people. Since 1995 2.6 million hectares or the equivalent 2.1% of all land has been handed to blacks via land restitution programmes. This figure pushes the amount of land in black hands to at least 27.1%. In addition more than R5 billion was paid out to restitution claimants who accepted cash payments instead of having land returned to them. That R5 billion was sufficient to purchase an additional 2.6 million hectares which would have pushed the amount of land in black hands to just on 30%. The land redistribution programme, which is a distinct programme from the land restitution programme, had by 2010 handed a further 3.1 million hectares, or 2.5% of the surface area, to black South Africans pushing up the share of black owned land to at least 32.5%. This figure is more than double that of the 13% often cited by government officials. These calculations have not taken into account land traded in the market between private owners. This is because accurate data on the extent of such trades does not exist. There is significant anecdotal evidence that such trading between former white and new black landowners has taken place. Whether the amounts traded are equivalent to 10% or 15% or 20% of the surface area of the country cannot be known. However any of these figures would push the figure for black land ownership to between 40% and 50% of South Africas surface area.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 09:54:43 +0000
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