State Land Audit: 8 million hectares unaccounted for
The DA looks forward to scrutinising the Land Reform Department's report on the results of the state land audit due to be tabled in Parliament, as announced during the Post-Cabinet Briefing today.
Full analysis of the report is particularly necessary as, according to a reply to a DA parliamentary question last week, the results of the land audit revealed that over 8 million hectares of the country's land is unaccounted for.
The reply further revealed that:
- 14% or 17 061 882 hectares are state-owned;
- 79% or 96 550 791 hectares are privately-owned; and
- 7% or 8 360 527 hectares are unaccounted for.
The Minister must urgently table this report in Parliament to allow for scrutiny of the veracity of the process used to conduct South Africa's land audit. Parliament and the public needs to know where the missing land is and who it is owned by. The DA will write to the Minister today, requesting specific deadlines for the tabling of the report.