DURBAN, South Africa Aug 30 (Reuters) – Blacks own 21
percent of land under commercial sugarcane production in South
Africa, inching closer to a 30 percent target set to undo racial
imbalances in land ownership, the chairman of the country’s
sugar association said on Thursday.
Bongani Linda told an industry gathering the percentage of
land under black ownership in the sugar sector had risen to that
figure from just 5 percent in 1994, when apartheid ended.
“We are confident … we will achieve the target of 30
percent by 2014,” Linda said.
Linda also said investment in the sector was being curtailed
as 130,000 hectares, or 39 percent of the area under commercial
sugarcane production, was subject to restitution claims.
This usually refers to claims by communities or individuals
for land they say was forcibly taken from them or their families
in the past during the apartheid era.
South Africa has set a target of handing over 30 percent of
commercial farmland to blacks by 2014 but progress has been
slow, prompting a review of the policy.
(Reporting by Olivia Kumwenda; Editing by Ed Stoddard)
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