Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza has warned against the inflation of land prices when government has to buy land from private owners, calling this corruption.
Didiza says this sometimes happens with the assistance of various parties, including some of the owners and valuators.
She was speaking during her closing remarks when she responded to the debate on her department’s budget vote in Parliament.
“There has been instances where some land owners have inflated prices, working in collusion at times with valuators, sometimes working with financial institutions and at times working with our officials to ensure that they increase the value of the assets. And that is corruption. It doesn’t matter whether it’s done by the Western Cape government to promote share equity schemes or national government. The truth is even in those instances we need to deal with the corrupt practices,” says Didiza.
