text: A record 400 farmers attacked in 2017, between one or two murdered a week. 
   
   THE South African government has begun the process of seizing land from white farmers. 
   
   Local newspaper City Press reports two game farms in the northern province of Limpopo are the first to be targeted for unilateral seizure after negotiations with the owners to purchase the properties stalled. 
   
   While the government says it intends to pay, owners Akkerland Boerdery wanted 200 million rand ($18.7 million) for the land — they’re being offered just 20 million rand ($1.87 million). 
   
   “Notice is hereby given that a terrain inspection will be held on the farms on April 5, 2018 at 10am in order to conduct an audit of the assets and a handover of the farm’s keys to the state,” a letter sent to the owners earlier this year said. 
   
   Akkerland Boerdery obtained an urgent injunction to prevent eviction until a court had ruled on the issue, but the Department of Rural Development and Land Affairs is opposing the application. 
   
   “What makes the Akkerland case unique is that they apparently were not given the opportunity to first dispute the claim in court, as the law requires,” AgriSA union spokeswoman Annelize Crosby told the paper. 
   
   These farms are on the goverment's #farmlist that ⁦@afriforum⁩ exposed. And yet government still denies that the list exists... but it is now clear that government is lying to the public. https://t.co/U40G0U1GIv — Kallie Kriel (@kalliekriel) August 19, 2018 
   
   It comes as the South African government pushes ahead with plans to amend the country’s constitution to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation. 
   
   The seizures are intended to test the ability of the government to take land under existing laws, which the ruling African National Congress has previously stated is allowable if “in the public interest”. 
   
   Earlier this month, City Press reported the government had drawn up a list of 139 farms it planned to seize “to test out” section 25 of the constitution. 
   
   The newspaper said employees at the department had been ordered to press ahead with the process at the Land Claims Court. 
   
   If the seizures go ahead, it would be the first time the state refuses to pay market value for land. Since the end of apartheid in 1994, the ANC has followed a “willing seller, willing buyer” process to redistribute white-owned farms to blacks. 
   
   A 2017 government audit found white people owned 72 per cent of private farmland in South Africa. According to the 2011 census, there are about 4.6 million white people in South Africa, accounting for 8.9 per cent of the population. 
   
   ANC spokesman Zizi Kodwa would not reveal details of the farms targeted and attempted to play down investor fears, saying the proposed seizures were “tied to addressing the injustices of the past”. 
   
   “Over time I think the markets as well as investors will appreciate that what we are doing is creating policy certainty and creating the conditions for future investment,” he told City Press. 
   
   Afriforum, a civil-rights group representing the white Afrikaner minority, subsequently released what it claimed to be a leaked list of 190 farms “being circulated in the department”, inviting farmers to check if they were on it and asking them to get in touch “so that we can prepare for a joint legal strategy”. 
   
   The government hit back, with department spokeswoman Linda Page telling News24 the list was a fake. “We don’t know where they got it from,” she said. “There is no truth to this document.” 
   
   News24 editor-in-chief Adriaan Basson slammed Afriforum for “disgusting fearmongering in the highest degree”. “Will Afriforum take action against (deputy CEO) Ernst Roets for distributing fake news?” he tweeted. “Will they apologise? We need cool heads — not arsonists — in this debate.” 
   
   On Sunday, Mr Roets tweeted that the two farms — Salaita and Lukin — were the first two names on Afriforum’s list. 
   
   “So the debate about the authenticity of the list is settled then?” he said. “We hope that the gravity of the state’s plans for expropriation is understood and that people will see through the dishonesty of the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development. 
   
   “We hope that the attempts to discredit the legitimacy of the list has now been proven to be malicious for good. We shouldn’t be misled by those who sing Kumbaya while the state is planning to expropriate property.” 
   
   AgriSA had described Afriforum’s release of the list as “irresponsible” and “inflammatory”, saying “cursory background research showed” several inaccuracies, including that a number of the farms were joint ventures co-owned by black people. 
   
   Earlier this month, cattle farmer Jo-an Engelbrecht told the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent his farm just outside Johannesburg was now “worth zero”. 
   
   “We had several auctions in the last two or three weeks cancelled because there was no people interested in buying the land,” he said. “Why would you buy a farm to know the government’s going to take it?” 
   
   frank.chung@news.com.au ||||| The South African government has begun the process of seizing land from owners in cases where the negotiation for compensation has stalled. Two game farms in Limpopo province are being targeted after the government offered the owners one-tenth of the asking price. 
   
   The process moved forward after negotiations with the white owners of the properties stalled, according to South Africa's City Press newspaper. Akkerland Boerdery, the company of property owners Johan Steenkamp and Arnold Cloete, demanded 200 million rand ($13.7 million) for the land, but is being offered just 20 million rand ($1.37 million). 
   
   Earlier this year, Akkerland Boerdery was sent notice that an inspection of the properties would be held in order to audit their value before being handed over to the state. 
   
   Steenkamp told Newsweek that the decision was delivered on very short notice during a long weekend of South African public holidays in March. The notice demanded that the keys to the farm be handed over within seven days, forcing them to seek legal representation and file an urgent application to the courts. 
   
   The owners obtained an injunction to hold off eviction until a court had ruled on the case. The application was opposed by the Department of Rural Development and Land Affairs. 
   
   Mashile Mokono, head of the department, said via City Press that the government was committed to speeding up land-reform policies, adding that Land Reform Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane signed another two final orders to expedite the seizure. 
   
   Mokono said this was not a case of expropriation without compensation, but the courts would have to decide on what "just and equitable" compensation is. 
   
   MIKE HUTCHINGS/AFP/Getty Images 
   
   According to City Press, South African government documents from 2006 show that a claim by the Musekwa tribe was lodged against Akkerland Boerdery in 1996, which the owners are disputing. Meanwhile, an attempt to purchase the land was made by Coal of Africa (now MC Mining) for the Makhado mining project. 
   
   "What makes the Akkerland case unique is that they apparently were not given the opportunity to first dispute the claim in court, as the law requires,” AgriSA, a union that largely represents white farm owners, said through spokeswoman Annelize Crosby. 
   
   In May, the country’s ruling African National Congress said it would "test the argument" that land redistribution without compensating owners was allowed under current law, Al Jazeera reported. 
   
   That would have prevented the riskier process of trying to amend the South African constitution to do so. However, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who took office in February, said at the end of July that the country would go ahead with plans to change the constitution. 
   
   “It has become pertinently clear that our people want the constitution to be more explicit about expropriation of land without compensation as demonstrated in the public hearings,” Ramaphosa said. 
   
   Twenty-five years since the end of the apartheid system, which saw the majority-black South African population treated as second-class citizens and denied basic rights, most land in the country remains in the hands of white owners. Land reform efforts began when apartheid ended, but the reality of continued white ownership is a lingering reminder of inequality in the country. 
   
   Farmers and some investors have opposed land seizures, arguing that it could negatively impact the country’s already struggling economy. In recent years, South Africa’s economic growth has slowed significantly, falling well below the 5 percent annual growth the government hopes for. Unemployment in the country has also reached near record highs, according to Al Jazeera. 
   
   Afriforum, a group representing South Africa’s white Afrikaner minority, released what it claimed to be a list of 190 farms the government is targeting for seizure. The organization told farmers to check the list and contact it for legal assistance to fight back. 
   
   The South African government Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has denied the validity of the list.
target: – The South African government has begun the controversial process of seizing land from white farmers in cases where negotiations to purchase the plots have fallen through. Per Newsweek, two game farms in the country's Limpopo province will be the first ones taken under the order after their owners declined to sell for a government offer that was a tenth of the asking price. While South African authorities say they still intend to pay Johan Steenkamp and Arnold Cloete, the owners of the land, the equivalent of $1.37 million, the men had priced the land at $13.7 million. Per News.com.au, the farmers' landholding company, Akkerland Boerdery, was sent a letter in April regarding an audit of the land that would be conducted by the government. Akkerland Boerdery reportedly received an injunction to prevent their eviction, however the country's Department of Rural Development and Land Affairs has opposed the injunction. Should the seizures go through, it would reportedly be the first case of the government refusing to pay market value. Under existing laws, such a seizure is allowed only if it's in the public interest. Since the end of apartheid, the government has only redistributed land to black South Africans only from willing white sellers.