Economic and Social Development – 1995
1995
In February 1995, the South African government launched a land redistribution pilot program. In a press conference on February 28, 1995, Land Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom said the object of the plan was to “achieve equitable and fair land distribution and to promote and secure the effective use of land as a resource, in a sustainable way. That is a major challenge.” The program which would go underway in areas in each of the nine provinces would cost 315 million rand (87 million dollars). Hanekom said that “80 percent of South African land belonged to 65,000 white farmers and the ultimate goal was to redistribute some 30 percent of that, most of which would come from bankrupt white farmers who had been kept afloat by state aid during apartheid rule.”1