Johannesburg ({{AFP}}) -{ South African President Jacob Zuma has proposed a law barring foreigners from buying real estate in the country under sweeping land reforms, his office said Saturday.}
The reforms are aimed at rectifying inequalities that have persisted since colonial days and apartheid, with white farmers still owning most of the land, and are slated to be enacted this year.
The law on foreign ownership cannot be applied retroactively, but the president’s office said Saturday the government could exercise a “right of first refusal… if the land is deemed strategic.”
The reform is aimed at addressing “the need to secure our limited land for food security and address the land injustice of more than 300 years of colonialism and apartheid,” the statement said.
In future, foreigners — who currently own some five to seven percent of South Africa’s land — would be allowed only to lease property for between 30 and 50 years, and may be required to cede land considered “strategic”.
– Spectre of Zimbabwe reforms –
A prominent realtor dismissed the bid as “a severe miscalculation that is likely to have serious repercussions on investor confidence” in South Africa.
“While the percentage of foreign ownership is low, the calibre of ownership is exactly what we need in this country,” said Lew Geffen of Sotheby’s International Realty.
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