After more than 30 years and the expenditure of billions of dollars to expropriate white farmers in South Africa, more than 90% of these farms have gone bankrupt. Most of the seized farms have become completely unproductive, contributing to a decline in agricultural production and job losses. Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti warned that land could be reclaimed if farms continue to fail. Nearly 60,000 square kilometers (23,000 square miles) have been redistributed as part of a policy to help blacks who have been impoverished by apartheid. The land was bought from white farmers, who sold it voluntarily. The BBC's Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg says some black farmers are likely to claim that they are struggling to get the resources and skills to develop their land. And reclaiming the land would pose a whole new problem for the government, our correspondent says, because any move to return the land to its former white owners is bound to be controversial. The government has set a 2014 goal to redistribute one-third of the land owned by whites back to the black majority. However, Mr. Nkwinti admitted that this deadline will not be met. He said the focus would now shift to helping black farmers make their land productive. The farms - which were actively collecting income for the state - have been handed over to the people, and more than 90% of them are not functioning, he said. They are not productive, and therefore the state is losing revenue. We can't afford to continue doing this.... No country can afford it. At the end of apartheid in 1994, almost 90% of the land belonged to the white community, which made up less than 10% of the population. Land reform is a thorny issue in South Africa, and has been put to the test by the collapse of agriculture in neighboring Zimbabwe, where many white commercial farmers have been violently evicted. Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8547621.stm