Didiza said South Africans need not worry.
"The process in which it is handled in South Africa in terms of legal framework and transparency is one of the strengths that gives me assurance that we are not about to go the route Zimbabwe has gone," she said. "I've always heard people say the government is too slow but that's because we have to negotiate."
Negotiations have produced a medley of local settlements, including cooperative and leasing deals with some white commercial farmers staying on the land but paying rent to the local community or a trust fund in their name.
Agreements are often complex, with more than one group claiming the same area of land due to successive dispossessions, or rival clans disagreeing how to share land or compensation.
But getting the land can be just the start -- making a viable living can be tough.
"The whole question of quickly settling this and meeting a deadline is not feasible."
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