30 percent of South African state land to be given to black famers CAPE TOWN, June 20 (AFP) - The amount of state land in South Africa to be redistributed to black farmers is to be doubled from 15 to 30 percent, Deputy Land and Agricultural Affairs Minister Dirk du Toit announced Tuesday. The process, designed to stave off the violent land grabs currently afflicting neighbouring Zimbabwe, was expected to take about 15 years, Du Toit told parliament, according to the SAPA news agency. His announcement follows a statement by President Thabo Mbeki last month that the government was considering giving more land to black farmers than the 15 percent it had previously promised. The redistribution, Mbeki said then, was part of the government's attempts to address the inequalities in land ownership in South Africa, where whites still control at least 80 percent of agricultural land. As an indication of the slow pace of reform, the new democratic government, since it came to power in 1994, has only managed to redistribute 0.81 percent of the 32 million hectares (79 million acres) of the country's privately- owned commercial farmland. Addressing parliament's portfolio committee on land affairs Tuesday, Land and Agricultural Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza said commercial banks had been approached to assist in financing the redistribution of farm land. "The banks are willing to participate in the redistribution of land," she said. Didiza said the government did not own sufficient land to cover its redistribution targets and would have to purchase farm land on the market, as well as induce farmers to sell their land. Agriculture department planners have estimated government's land reform plans will cost the country about 5.5 billion rand (785 million dollars) over the next 15 to 20 years, depending on the size of the grants offered to farmers. The government also would welcome donations of farm land from white farmers, Didiza said. Government land redistribution programmes are intended to redress skewed land ownership, enabled by the Land Act of 1913 which allocated 87 percent of arable land to the white minority and the rest to the black majority. Mbeki has assured white farmers that land redistribution in South Africa would be done in accordance with the constitution. In Zimbabwe, some 1,500 white-owned commercial farms have been invaded by veterans of that country's liberation war in a violent land grab that has the blessing of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. bur/br/sst ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------