L Xingwana: Ministerial Lekgotla in Benoni

4 November 2006

“Lehumo letswa tshemong”

If you go to some of the poorest areas in our country, people have land but
poverty and food insecurity is still high. The Accelerated and Shared Growth
Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) has termed this challenge “dead assets in
the hands of the poor”. We want to turn these assets/land and make them work
for the people. During the month of November - which is the planting season for
maize in some parts of our country - we are going back to the fields to plough.
Sibuyele’ masimini siyolima.

I am happy therefore, to announce, this morning, the launch of the
“Ilima/Letsema” campaign.

We will, through this campaign, build on and leverage programmes already
existing in the provinces - programmes that offer support to small scale
farming in the form of fencing, seeds, fertilisers, extension support, and
irrigation as an example. We will have Ilima/Letsema in all provinces during
November.

To the men and women in our rural areas, those in communal areas, in our
peri-urban areas, those with land next to the cities – LET NO LAND LIE FALLOW!
Go back to the land and unleash this productive asset to feed our families and
communities, create employment and contribute towards economic growth and
development of local and rural economies.

To the young people of our country also, we say to them they must roll up
their sleeves and go to the fields. We say to them agriculture is cool!

We have, over the past two and a half days, come together as the Ministry
for Agriculture and Land Affairs, MECs, Heads of Departments nationally and the
provinces, CEOs of our state-owned entities, and top management of these
institutions, to:
• take stock of progress made to date in implementing our programmes
• identify challenges
• align our programmes and fast track delivery.

We have collectively agreed on the magnitude of the challenges lying ahead
and therefore committed ourselves that Siyagijima from now on!

In line with the spirit of SIYAGIJIMA, we have prioritised various areas for
speedy implementation during the remaining five months of this financial year
and for the next two years. These include the following:

• Finalising all urban restitution claims by March next year and settling of
the outstanding rural claims by 2008 as dictated by the President during the
State of the Nation Address in February this year.
• Speeding up implementation of the resolutions of the Land Summit and next
year reporting back to stakeholders on how far we have gone.
• Finalising the AgriBEE Charter by the end of the year. We want transformation
in the agriculture industry and empower women, the urban and rural poor, and
the youth of our country especially. Bio-fuels - if done in the right way -
will offer potential for growth in the agriculture sector and should also
assist emerging farmers. We are engaging with emerging farmers to see how this
programme can benefit them.
• Fast-tracking spatial planning to deal with the challenges of agricultural
land used for other developments and speed up the provision of land for housing
development. We need to re-shape present settlement patterns, which currently
are developer-driven and still follow those of the apartheid past.
• Modernising our deeds registration system - and related areas – and
leveraging technology to speed up deeds registration and avoid delays that
negatively affect development and may compromise the attainment of the AsgiSA
targets.
• Turning around operations of the Land Bank to ensure that it delivers on its
mandate, particularly its contribution to promoting previously disadvantaged
individuals in the agriculture sector, development in the agriculture sector
and AgriBEE, and remains sustainable. Support to the previously disadvantaged
communities by the Land Bank should assist Government in the redistribution of
30% of agricultural land by 2014 and other land reform objectives.

We have said to every official and manager present during this Ministerial
Lekgotla: Gijima!

We have built in quarterly reporting mechanisms to assess delivery. Land and
agrarian reform is one of the fundamental key projects of our government and we
therefore call for support from all relevant stakeholders to support these
plans so that the dream for a prosperous and united South Africa can be
realised and for a better life for all.

Thank you

Enquiries:
Mr Steve Galane
Tel: (012) 319-7960
Cell: 083 635 7346

Issued by: Department of Agriculture
4 November 2006
Source: Department of Agriculture (http://www.nda.agric.za)