{"id":268497,"date":"2018-08-30T15:32:47","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T13:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=268497"},"modified":"2018-08-30T15:33:47","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T13:33:47","slug":"imf-backs-south-african-land-reform-with-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/268497\/imf-backs-south-african-land-reform-with-conditions\/","title":{"rendered":"IMF backs South African land reform &#8211; with conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave its full backing to South Africa\u2019s land reform plan on Thursday &#8211; so long as the highly contentious process is transparent and based on the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/af.reuters.com\/article\/investingNews\/idAFKCN1LF1IQ-OZABS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reuters<\/a><\/strong>, the IMF&#8217;s senior resident representative in South Africa, Montfort Mlachila, said that the reform must not damage farm output to ensure South Africans continue to have reliable food supplies.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are in full support of the need to undertake land reforms to address the issues of inequality.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at his office in Pretoria, Mlachila said the IMF was not an expert on land reform. However, he said that there is a need to have a transparent, rules-based, and constitutional process that leads to desirable outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is particularly important not to undermine agricultural production and food security.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the South African economy, Mlachila said the IMF was unlikely to revise its growth forecast upwards. Last month the Fund kept its prediction of 2018 growth at 1.5%.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Given the weaknesses in growth indicators in the second quarter of 2018, I don\u2019t see us revising upwards,\u201d he said, although he added that it was too early to say for definite.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mlachila&#8217;s comments are similar to those made by British prime minister Theresa May, who was in the country on Tuesday (28 August) as part of a working-visit.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The UK has for some time now supported land reform. Land reform that is legal, that is transparent, that is generated through a democratic process,&#8221; May told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s an issue that I raised and discussed with President Ramaphosa when he was in London earlier this year. I\u2019ll be talking about it with him later today,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/267749\/may-supports-south-africas-land-reform-provided-its-done-legally\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">May supports South Africa\u2019s land reform \u2013 provided it\u2019s done legally<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave its full backing to South Africa\u2019s land reform plan on Thursday &#8211; provided the process meets certain conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":86704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-268497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268497"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268507,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268497\/revisions\/268507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}