The Department of Land and Rural Development has not responded to business organisation Sakeliga’s application for the names of the 139 farms the government has earmarked for expropriation without compensation.

A decision was taken last weekend at the ANC’s national executive committee lekgotla to expropriate without compensation "guinea pig" farms‚ in line with calls for section 25 of the Constitution to be amended to allow this. The meeting heard that the department of rural development and land reform had identified 139 farms across the country that would serve as test cases. Sakeliga‚ previously called AfriBusiness‚ filed a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application on Wednesday for details of the farms.

The organisation’s law and policy analyst‚ Armand Greyling‚ said Sakeliga would fight land expropriation without compensation and would help owners prepare their legal defence.

“The ANC is busy making an enemy of landowners by unfairly targeting them. We will continue opposing this unconstitutional expropriation policy‚” Greyling said.

Department spokesperson Linda Page said on Friday that she did not know whether it had received the application.

The Citizen reported that the department’s Mashile Mokono had said the names of the farms would be kept confidential and would not disclose the names to Sakeliga.

“Until the affected landowner has been served with expropriation notices‚ what they [Sakeliga] are asking for is unlikely to happen. We will deal confidentially with people on an individual basis and not as a group. It’s a matter which cannot be made public.”

JacarandaFM reported in March that Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe said a farmer near Queenstown‚ Eastern Cape‚ is a possible candidate for land expropriation without compensation.

“There is a man in Queenstown‚ he is a big farmer. Every farm that comes to the market‚ he buys it. It cannot be fair. When we talk of expropriation without compensation‚ those are the first candidates because he is not needing land; he's greedy. We must deal with greed‚” he was quoted as saying.

Netwerk24 reported in March that Land Reform Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said the farms had been identified but did not want to disclose the names so that owners cannot prepare legal proceedings.