Farmers Rights Law Sends South African Landowners Packing

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Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network

Passage of the Security of Tenure Bill is enraging South Africas landowners who call it the last straw that will drive many from the country.

The bill gives farm workers the right to run their own livestock, the right to graze them on the farmers land, the right to plant crops and build homesteads. Other rights are to bury family members on the farm and the right to clean water and electricity.

"The bill is going to worsen the situation for farmers, complained Andy Tladi, who farms sunflowers.

You are going to see workers putting up villages on farms. If you allow 10 people to build houses on a farm, in about 20 years you could have up to 30 families. So, how does the farmer continue to grow and invest under those circumstances?

But, Mthobeli Mxotwa, spokesman for Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti, said the bill was meant to "stop cruelty against farm workers".

"Workers get kicked off farms and dumped along the side of the road. The Land Tenure Act and the Extension of Security of Tenure [Act] were found to be toothless - eviction continued unabated. We decided to tighten the new bill in order to give farm workers rights. By the way, we also extended those rights to land owners."

"(The bill) is meant to create democracy, peace and stability on the farms," he said.

Meanwhile, some 40 farmers visited the Democratic Republic of Congo last month and signed agreements to lease 80,000 acres of land to farm maize, beans, vegetables and other crops.

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