Land reform process a shameful fraud, says farmer in fight with government
David Rakgase says he agreed to buy the land under the discontinued Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development programme in 2002
An elderly Limpopo farmer who has gone to court to fight for a farm he says the government promised him nearly two decades ago has described the land reform process he was put through as “a cruel and shameful fraud”. The case has laid bare how the government has actively pushed for state land ownership for almost a decade, despite President Cyril Ramaphosa being adamant that the ANC does not support the nationalisation of land advocated for by the EFF, David Rakgase — who has been leasing his farm from the state since the late 1990s — was responding to the government’s statement that all it could offer him was a 30-year lease on a land he has spent 27 years farming, upgrading and building on. “I respectfully submit that it is frankly absurd for the minister [of land reform & rural development] to offer a 30-year lease to a man who is now 78-years-old,” he said. “I maintained the farm, invested in the farm and continued to pay the rent [even after the expiry of the lease] with th...
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