Home » DA Says Land Audit Report Revealing Low Black Ownership Should Be Tabled in Parliament

DA Says Land Audit Report Revealing Low Black Ownership Should Be Tabled in Parliament

The long-awaited Land Audit Report reportedly reveals that Black South Africans only directly own 1.2 % of the rural land in the country, and 7% of formally registered property in towns and cities. Opposition party, the DA, said it welcomes newspaper reports of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform’s Land Audit Report, which […]

By SAPeople Contributor
05-02-18 21:08
in Business

The long-awaited Land Audit Report reportedly reveals that Black South Africans only directly own 1.2 % of the rural land in the country, and 7% of formally registered property in towns and cities.

Opposition party, the DA, said it welcomes newspaper reports of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform’s Land Audit Report, which is said to have been tabled at the Cabinet Lekgotla… but calls for it to be tabled in Parliament “so that it can be interrogated and the sluggish rate of land reform can be debated”.

Thomas Walters, DA Shadow Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, said this is a “justice issue” and “unacceptable that after 24 years since the dawn of democracy the statistics around land reform paint a dire picture of land ownership”.

In a press statement, Walters said: “The report reveals that Black South Africans only directly own 1.2 % of the country’s rural land and 7% of formally registered property in towns and cities. It further states that white South Africans, who constitute 9% of the country’s population, directly own 23.6% of the country’s rural land and 11.4% of land in towns and cities.”

Source: Land Audit Report, Dept of Rural Development and Land Reform

Walters said there is still a large amount of state-owned land that is under-utilised that can be used for redistribution purposes.

He said it is crucial that the land audit report be brought before parliament so that the institution can begin the work of identifying the problems relating to land reform and root out the blockages.

The purpose of the report was to “provide information on private land ownership by race, nationality, and gender as of 2015”.

The authors of the report say: “Since the dawn of democracy in South Africa no official information has been published on land ownership according race, gender and nationality. There is need to show who owns South African land and to track progress of land reform to fulfil section 25(5) of the Constitution objectives to enable South African citizens access to land on equitable racial and gender basis.”

According to the Land Audit, ownership of farms and agricultural holdings by individual owners is as follows:

  • RACE: Whites own 72% of the total 37 031 283 ha farms and agricultural holdings by individual landowners; followed by Coloureds at 15%, Indians at 5%, Africans at 4%, other at 3%, and co-owners at 1%.
  • GENDER: Individual males own 72%; followed by females at 13%. Male-female own 11%, co-owners 2%, and other 3%.
  • NATIONALITY: South African individuals own 92%; followed by foreign individuals at 2%; co-ownership at 2%; and other at 4%.

View the full Land Audit Report 2017: Phase II: Private Land Ownership by Race, Gender and Nationality – click here.