South Africa's parliament approves land expropriation bill 

May 26, 2016

View photos

A farmer inspects the soil ahead of planting at a maize field in Wesselsbron, a small maize farming town in the Free State province of South Africa, January 13, 2016. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's parliament on Thursday approved a bill allowing state expropriations of land to redress racial disparities in land ownership, an emotive issue two decades after the end of apartheid.

Most of South Africa's land remains in white hands and many commercial and small-scale farmers are currently facing tough times because of the worst drought in at least a century.

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.

Experts say it will not signal the kind of often violent land grabs that took place in neighbouring Zimbabwe, where white-owned farms were seized by the government for redistribution to landless blacks.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) said the bill, criticised by some opposition parties and farming groups, would tackle injustices imposed during white-minority rule.

"The passing of the bill by parliament is historic and heralds a new era of intensified land distribution programme to bring long-awaited justice to the dispossessed majority of South Africans," the ANC said in a statement.

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.

The ANC says land will only be expropriated after "just and equitable" compensation has been paid.

Around 8 million hectares (20 million acres) of land have been transferred to black owners since apartheid, equal to 8 to 10 percent of the land in white hands in 1994. The total is only a third of the 30 percent targeted by the ANC.

The national assembly initially passed the bill in February before it was sent for amendments and it remains only for President Jacob Zuma to sign it into law. [nL8N1624QW]

(Reporting by Joe Brock; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Engr Chris Ogiemwonyi, the man of the people, buys nomination forms for Edo Governorship race slated fpr Sept. 10. Meanwhile, the Association of Edo APC Delegates endorses the aspiration of Engr. Ogiemwonyi for the governorship of Edo State. The association is made up of 9 delegates each from the 192 wards in the State. In a meeting held in Benin City over the weekend, they endorsed the candidacy of Ogiemwonyi. Shouts of no to imposition and no to governor say rented the air. They bitterly denounced the idea of those in government who are seeking to maintain the status quo and their hold on governors patronage by play on the intelligence of the delegates with their continuity slogan. The delegates observed that the continuity was for their pocket and personal interest..