South Africa has told white farmers it may seize their properties under the land restitution program if they fail to agree on a selling price within six months.

The program aims to hand back land or offer financial compensation to black people who were forcibly removed from their ancestral homes under apartheid.

It is part of efforts to correct skewed land ownership created under white minority rule.

President Thabo Mbeki's Government wants 30 per cent of farm land in black hands by 2014.

But the transfer process has been slow, with only around 4 per cent of land transferred by the restitution program so far.

Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana says wrangling with white land-owners over prices is one of the main reasons for the low turnover.

She has given them a strong warning.

"We are now going to negotiate six months - no more, no less," she said.

"Indeed, we don't have time to be talking and talking for 10 years... because already our people have been waiting."

"We will no longer waste time negotiating with people who are not committed to transformation."

South Africa has been quick to dismiss comparisons with neighbouring Zimbabwe, where a similar campaign was frequently marked by violence.

It has vowed to take a more orderly approach to addressing its apartheid and British colonial legacy.

Ms Xingwana's department has already identified several properties that will be taken over if it cannot reach agreement over prices with the owners, but it is the first time the Government has set a time limit on such talks.

Officials have stressed land will only be seized as a last resort and farmers have the right to appeal against the decision in court.

Land claims are an especially emotive part of the post-apartheid reforms, as they often bring white families who have lived on the land for generations up against black people whose historical ties to the land run even deeper.

So far, 89 per cent of the nearly 80,000 claims that were lodged by the December 1998 cut-off date have been settled.
The Government has set a 2008 deadline to finish the process.
- Reuters

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200608/s1713602.htm