Minority still controls most of the productive agricultural land

Eleven years into democratic rule, South Africa's white minority population still controls most of the productive agricultural land, government officials acknowledged earlier this week. The land affairs department told parliament's budget committee that whites still owned about 82 percent of commercial farmland, despite ongoing efforts to get more land into the hands of the black population. Since the ruling African National Congress party took power in April 1994, an estimated 3.5 million ha of land has been transferred through restitution and redistribution - far short of the 30 percent target they hoped to reach by 2004.