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Zuma Says Changes Coming to Land Policy


South African President Jacob Zuma has said the country needs to change its land reform policy but will not engage in Zimbabwe-style land seizures.

Speaking in Johannesburg Thursday, Mr. Zuma said there is a "general view" that the current policy, known as Willing Buyer-Willing Seller, has not worked adequately.

The policy is meant to encourage white landowners to sell land to the country's black majority.

Mr. Zuma said his government is working on a "much more pragmatic formula for land redistribution." But he said there would be no land invasions because any changes must be made within the law.

Unequal land distribution is a legacy of South Africa's system of apartheid, which ended in 1994.

Zimbabwe's government tackled a similar imbalance by confiscating land from white farmers beginning in 2000. Soon afterward, Zimbabwe's economy went into steep decline, marked by food shortages and hyperinflation.

Mr. Zuma made his remarks Thursday to a symposium on South Africa's constitution.

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