The Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Department is mooting a bill that will regulate land ownership by foreign nationals.
This was revealed by Minister Thoko Didiza when responding to ATM MP Thandiswa Marawu when she enquired whether any legislation has been developed to limit the sale of land to foreigners since former president Jacob Zuma made the undertaking in his State of the Nation Address in 2015.
While Didiza did not explain what the regulation would entail, in 2015, then president Zuma said that a ceiling of land ownership would be set at a maximum of 12 000 hectares and that foreign nationals would not be allowed to own land in South Africa but would be eligible for long-term lease.
He had promised that the Regulation of Land Holdings Bill would be submitted to Parliament that year.
In her Parliamentary questions, Marawu wanted to know whether the department has considered introducing legislation addressing limitations on foreign land ownership in light of the economic advantages non-South Africans have that drive South Africans out of the land and property market, among other things.
She also asked about the number of hectares of land sold to non-South Africans from January 2015 and initiatives that the department had embarked on to prioritise and protect the land rights of native South Africans who may be economically disadvantaged in acquisition of land by non-citizens.
“The regulation of land ownership by foreign nationals is being addressed through the Land Acquisition and Redistribution Bill that is being developed and should soon serve before Cabinet for permission to publish for public comment,” Didiza said.
She added that the Land Acquisition and Redistribution Bill sought to provide for compulsory land ownership disclosures by race, gender and nationality.
“It will further require disclosures in terms of the size and use of the agricultural land; any real right registered against and licence allocated to the agricultural land, and any other information as may be prescribed.”
Didiza further said that there was currently no provision in law to track the hectares of land acquired by non-South Africans.
“The deeds registration system only keeps record of the names and identity numbers of registered owners of land and not their nationality.
“And for this reason it is not possible to identify any land that is registered in the names of non-South Africans,” she explained.
“However, the proposed amendment in the Deeds Registries Amendment Bill provides for the inclusion of a regulation pertaining to the collection of personal information relating to race, gender, citizenship and nationality of land owners in South Africa, for statistical and land audit purposes only.
“This information will be captured into a register for official use, only by State departments in the national or provincial spheres of government,” Didiza said.
She added that the Land Acquisition and Redistribution Bill would prioritise and/or protect the land rights of all native South Africans who may be economically disadvantaged in the context of the acquisition of land by non-citizens.
“The 2020 Cabinet approved beneficiary selection and land allocation policy defines the beneficiary selection criteria as well as priority beneficiaries of land reform,” Didiza said.
Jaco Minnaar, president of Agri SA, said the organisation had not yet been consulted on the proposed bill.
“AgriSA supports a free market system where land ownership can trade freely and on mutual agreement to conditionalities such as price, and so on, between any two willing parties,” Minnaar said.
“That includes foreigners.
“To put in any limitations would influence the market, to the detriment of any property owner.”
Noko Masipa, the DA’s national spokesperson on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, said that the party needed to look at the bill and consider their position.
“The bill cannot be processed during this term.
“Probably in the next term. “All bills for this term of Parliament have all passed through the Cabinet stage.
“Any new bill still serving before Cabinet would lapse before reaching Parliament and shall only be introduced in the new term,” Masipa added.
Bennie van Zyl, TLU SA general manager said that the South African economy was not growing significantly enough to address unemployment and poverty.
“Unfortunately this is to do with the policies that the government has created which has led to an environment where foreigners are not keen to invest.
“Foreign currency is not flowing into our country sufficiently and this has created a huge problem for us. I do however, believe that (the issue of) foreign nationals owning land should be addressed but with a constructive discussion. As we need land not to be just given to people, it needs to be used for the benefit and the productivity of our economy.”
The Mercury