Johannesburg - Private individuals and foreigners own close to 80 percent of South African land, according to the latest land audit.
It shows that the state owns a mere 14 percent of the land.
Releasing the details during a post-cabinet media briefing on Thursday, the chief surveyor-general, Mmuso Riba, said 96 million hectares of land were in the hands of private individuals, companies and trusts.
By comparison, the state owned just 17 million hectares.
The amount of land in the hands of foreigners could not be determined because of problems with the Home Affairs Department’s database.
Classification of ownership by race was also impossible because the same database does not make provision for such categories.
Riba added that agriculture and fisheries accounted for most of state land - about four million hectares or 19,7 percent of the state’s total.
“That would be land registered in national, provincial or local government and parastatals.
“We were able to determine that the state owned 14 percent of land in South Africa, and private - whether it’s private companies or private individuals - owned 79 percent of land,” said Riba.
He said 1.15 million land parcels across the country had been visited as part of the audit.
According to the audit report, the state also failed to account for seven percent of land, with the former Transkei in the Eastern Cape alone sitting with four million hectares of unregistered land.
Riba said while private land was included in the audit, physical verification was done only on state properties.
“One of the things we wanted to achieve out of this exercise was to determine race classification in terms of ownership of land in South Africa. Unfortunately we could not do that because the Home Affairs database is no longer classified in terms of race,” said Riba.
He said the government would conduct further surveys to see how many blacks, companies and trusts owned land.
Cabinet spokeswoman Phumla Williams said the report on the Audit of Registered State Land and a desktop analysis of private land ownership in South Africa had already been approved by the cabinet.
“Land information is critical to the success of all land developments in the country. The purpose of the audit of registered state land is to determine how much land is owned by the state, what it is used for, and who the occupants and users are,” said Williams.
She said the land ownership information would be used to enhance the integrity of the land register and serve as the basis for enhanced land planning and administration. This included other functions relating to property portfolio management and improved service delivery.
The Freedom Front Plus’s Pieter Groenewald dismissed the audit, saying it lacked credibility.
“We say we want an external and independent assessment of land ownership because this whole thing is emotional and based on race. The government can’t tell exactly who owns what land, and that’s our problem.”
Groenewald said the FF Plus was in favour of private ownership of land “because private owners develop land faster than the state”.
The DA’s Kevin Mileham said a full analysis of the report was necessary to determine what happened to the eight million hectares of unaccounted-for land.
“Parliament and the public need to know where the missing land is and who it is owned by,” said Mileham.
Economic Freedom Fighters spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said the audit results were further evidence that the state should expropriate land without compensation.
Azapo leader Jakes Dikobo said the report was proof that “the so-called land reform is not taking us anywhere”.
Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said the labour federation would study the report and comment if appropriate.
Agri-SA president Johannes Möller could not be reached for comment.
The Star