Cape Town – Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti
published the Regulation of Agricultural Land Holdings Bill on Friday,
giving stakeholders until April 16 to submit comments.
If
promulgated as an act, the law will ban foreigners from buying
agricultural land and require them to enter into long-term leases.
Foreigners
selling land would also have to offer the minister “the right of first
refusal to acquire ownership of such agricultural land holdings”,
Nkwinti explains in the gazetted bill.
The bill will see the
creation of a Land Commission, which will oversee the collection and
dissemination of all information regarding public agricultural land in
South Africa.
The reason for this is because “the nature, extent,
trends and impact of land acquisition, land use and investment in the
country’s land by foreign persons remains unknown as no comprehensive
database exists to develop an understanding of such”, Nkwinti explains.
“The
decade from 1997 to 2007 was characterised by significant shifts in
ownership and land use including increasing acquisition of agricultural
properties by foreign nationals in certain regions,” said Nkwinti.
There
is also an “absence of reliable information regarding the extent of
agricultural land holdings owned by South Africans in terms of race and
gender as well as the use and size of the land in question”.
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