DELEGATES at the land summit yesterday rejected land reform policy based on the "willing buyer, willing seller" principle.

"The summit took a resolution to say that (the principle) needs to be done away with. Government must come up with another mechanism," said agriculture and land affairs spokesman Steve Galane.

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said at the start of the summit on Wednesday that the principle was slowing down land reform. She told delegates the principle would have to be revisited as the state was the only buyer, and farmers often asked exorbitant prices for their land.

Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza raised concerns about the principle, saying the state should be allowed to influence how the markets work.

Galane said delegates also recommended that a land tax be put in place and that the December 31 1998 deadline for lodging restitution claims needed to be reviewed. Also, that as land redistribution was being hampered by foreigners buying land in SA, delegates had proposed a moratorium on the practice.

"All these things are still recommendations. Government will respond to these," Galane said.

The government wants all land restitution claims settled within the next three years, and 30% of agricultural land to be delivered to black farmers by 2014.

By December last year, only 3% of commercial farm land had been redistributed.

Most opposition political parties and bodies representing white farmers were against scrapping the "willing buyer, willing seller" principle. AgriSA director Hans van der Merwe said that it was reasonable for land owners to expect a market-related price for land they had to part with, and this was best determined by the "willing buyer, willing seller" principle.

In 1994, 87% of agricultural land was owned by whites. Since then 1,2-million people have benefited from land reform.

By the end of June this year, SA’s land restitution programme had settled 62127 of 79000 claims made. Sapa