font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#555555'>A bill allowing state expropriations of land to redress racial disparities in land ownership was passed in Parliament yesterday (Thursday).
font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#555555'>The bill, in the works since 2008, will enable the state to pay for land at a value determined by a government adjudicator and then expropriate it for the "public interest", ending the willing-buyer, willing-seller approach to land reform.
font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#555555'>The African National Congress (ANC) said the bill would “tackle injustices imposed during white minority rule”.
font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#555555'>"The passing of the bill by parliament is historic and heralds a new era of intensified land distribution to bring long-awaited justice to the dispossessed majority of South Africans," the ANC said in a statement.
font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#555555'>CNBC Africa reports that some economists and farming groups have said the reform could hit investment and production at a time when South Africa is emerging from drought - pointing to the serious economic damage arising from farm seizures in Zimbabwe. They have also complained about a lack of clarity on how it will all work.
"Arial",sans-serif;color:#555555'>Earlier this week, the Institute for Race Relations issued a report stating that "Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>demand for farm land could possibly be met without the disruptions, risks and costs of radical distributions.
"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>The report, ‘From Land to Farming: Bringing Land Reform Down to Earth’, argues that there is enough land already in state ownership to meet demand for land for agricultural purposes.
"Arial",sans-serif;color:black'>“This includes state-owned land in communal and commercial areas that is lying fallow, often because previous land reform projects have failed or been abandoned,” said John Kane-Berman, author of the IRR report.
