- “As was the case during the debate around the budget vote on rural development and land reform this week, accusations that the existing group of white farmers had stolen their land persist in various circles, including the EFF,” said Agri SA president Mr Johannes Möller in a media statement released on 25 July 2014. Mr Möller further stated that deliberations in this regard are driven at such a low level of applicable knowledge that well-founded arguments to the contrary barely reach this target. “Why is there a debt-asset ratio of almost 60% on land and fixed improvements if the land had been stolen? Does the fact that farming units have declined from 118 000 in 1950 to the current figure of 40 000 mean that farmers have also “stolen” this from one another? It is general knowledge that approximately 5% of farmland is traded annually. This in effect means that the total area of all farmland in South Africa had been traded over the past 20 years. Thus, in the “era of democracy” the land market has been dynamic based on trading and was not characterised by so-called theft,” said Möller. To read more click HERE.