South Africa Draws Up a List of Almost 200 Farms It Will Seize from White Farmers

South Africa’s government has been accused of earmarking almost 200 farms for seizure from their white owners as the chair of the African National Congress said the state should take land from those who own more than 12,000 hectares [almost 30,000 acres].

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AfriForum, a lobby group which mainly represents white South Africans, claimed to have a list of 195 farms which the government was planning to seize.

But the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform denied the claim, saying there was ‘no truth to this document’, News 24 reported.

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Ownership patterns remain highly emotive as the government has been slow to transfer land to the black majority after centuries of colonial and racial oppression.

The ANC’s plans to amend the constitution to redistribute land have been interpreted negatively by some investors, who see them as undermining property rights.

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‘You shouldn’t own more than 12,000 hectares of land and therefore if you own more, it should be taken without compensation,’ ANC Chairman Gwede Mantashe, who is also the country’s mines minister, told News24 in an interview published on Wednesday.

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Mantashe is one of the top six most powerful officials in the ruling party and a close ally of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

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The 12,000 hectare land ownership limit was mooted in 2016, by then-rural development minister Gugile Nkwinti. But Nkwinti said the government would seek to buy, not expropriate without compensation, land from those owning more than 12,000 hectares.

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