Senior Staff Reporter
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – SOUTH African white settlers are panicking as majority black people are intensifying their campaign for land distribution.

Led by the National Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU), they are organising a protest scheduled for next Wednesday to pressure the African National Congress (ANC) government to address the land imbalances.

Addressing journalists in Johannesburg, NUMSA President, Cedric Gina, said the campaign by the two unions will coincide with the centenary of the Native Land Act of 1913.

The 1913 Act limited black African land ownership to 7 percent despite the fact that black Africans made up two-thirds of South Africa’s population.

Next Wednesday, NUMSA and FAWU will urge workers to picket during lunch.

Later, the unions will hold rallies in the major cities and rural towns.

Gina raised concern at the pace at which government was addressing the land imbalances.

“Land redistribution has been moving at a snail’s pace in our country. Although the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) called for the redistribution of 30 percent of agricultural land within the first five years of the land redistribution programme, the date for meeting the stipulated target has shifted from the 'first five years of the programme' to 2014," Gina said.

He said prolonged fast-track land would make sure the implementation of the provisions of the Freedom Charter that stipulates that “the land shall be shared by those who work it” was immediately shared equally.

However, the Afrikaans business organisation, AfriSake, whose majority members own the biggest portion of the land, condemned the call by NUMSA and FAWU to fast-track the land redistribution exercise as "a direct attack on private property ownership in South Africa."

AfriSake CEO, Cornelius Jansen van Rensburg, said the land reform campaign would harm South African economy.

“AfriSake is concerned about the negative impact of the newly announced land reform campaign of the NUMSA and the FAWU on the South African economy.

“This land reform campaign could mar the relationship between farmers and their employees, which in return will result in increasing instability in the farming sector," van Rensburg said.

Proponents of land reform want South Africa to distribute wealth in line with initiatives in Zimbabwe where government has ordered foreign-owned firms in some sectors to cede 51 percent of their stakes to locals.