Banks are in talks to start a special fund to accelerate the transfer of land to black South Africans, in an effort to protect billions of rand in assets tied up in farm loans. Lenders are wading into the racially charged land-reform debate as the ANC embraces calls to change the constitution to allow expropriation without compensation. While the ANC sees the step as a means to improve equality 24 years after the end of aparthied, the DA says it is trying to deflect blame from its failure to properly manage earlier land-reform efforts, in the run-up to elections next year. "We’re absolutely convinced as an industry that for the long-term sustainability of economic and social wellbeing in this country, we do need to address the serious problems and inequities we have," Banking Association of SA MD Cas Coovadia said. "There could be various mechanisms through which we do that. A joint fund could be one such mechanism." White farmers own almost three-quarters of SA’s agricultural land,...
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