L Xingwana: Women's Parliament

28 August 2007

Madam Speaker,
Deputy Speaker,
Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa,
Cabinet Ministers present here today,
Members of Parliament,
Invited delegates from various institutions,
Ladies and Gentlemen

Nelson Mandela noted in his Long Walk to Freedom (257: 1994) "that these
women were courageous, persistent, enthusiastic, indefatigable, and their
protest against passes set a standard for antigovernment protest that was never
equalled." Close quote.

Madam Speaker,

The founding fathers and mothers of our young democracy have bequeathed our
nation with a Constitution that seeks to reverse the imbalances of the past.
Enshrined in this Constitution is the Bill of Rights, which guarantees all of
us certain rights, including rights in land. Since 1994, our government has
passed a number of land laws to give effect to the provisions of the
Constitution. As a result of these laws, the Department of Land Affairs has put
a number of programmes in place to fulfil the promise of our Constitution.

Madam Speaker, the government's land reform programme is made up of the
following three legs: Land Redistribution, Land Tenure Reform and Land
Restitution.

Land redistribution seeks to bring about equity in ownership of land. The
government has set itself a target to redistribute 30% of 82 million hectares
of white-owned agricultural land to black people, including women. In October
last year we launched the Women in Agriculture and Rural Development (Ward), as
a vehicle that will together with other women formations and the government,
spearhead the campaign of mobilisation on women countrywide to participate
fully in the government's land redistribution programme. The challenge facing
women is not only to ensure that government redistributes land from whites to
blacks but also to ensure that women get their equal share.

The Department of Land Affairs is finalising a programme that is aimed at
ensuring that women will be truly empowered through all the department's
programmes. Ward has already asked the department to dedicate 30% of its budget
to the empowerment of women, and I fully support that.

Madam speaker, the Tenure Reform Programme is one of the key pillars of our
Land Reform Programme and yet not much has been achieved in this area. While
government has passed legislation to protect the rights of some 2,8 million
people working and living on commercial farms, we continue to receive reports
of violation of the rights of women, children and the elderly on commercial
farms. Much more still needs to be done to address this unacceptable state of
affairs.

In this regard, we intend to intensify our efforts aggressively and
pro-actively to acquire land to provide tenure security for people living and
working on commercial farms. We now have facts and figures on the numbers, the
precise whereabouts and areas of concentration of these people. Using this
empirical data, we have developed plans per district and local municipality in
all affected areas to prioritise the acquisition of some 5 million hectares
over the next two years, for farm dwellers.

Madam speaker, it is critically important that as we acquire land for farm
dwellers, we do not simply provide tenure security for its own sake. Instead,
we must ensure that we provide all the necessary support to ensure that the
farms acquired remain productive. We have to invest sufficiently in the
development of skills of our women and youth to ensure that as a country we do
not suffer food insecurity.

I am informed that the average age of a commercial farmer in South Africa is
55 years. This means that we must double our efforts to replenish this capacity
by educating and training our women and our youth in agriculture. This is a
challenge I am posing to women of South Africa today: here is an opportunity,
take full advantage of it!

Madam speaker, the State is the custodian of some 13 million hectares of
land in communal areas, the so-called former homelands. We have established
that 3 million hectares of this land is suitable for agriculture and yet lies
underutilised if, indeed utilised at all. Many subsistence and small-scale
farmers own a many assets in the form of livestock. About 64% of goats, 45% of
cattle, 20% of pigs and 12% of sheep are in the hands of black emerging and
communal farmers, yet less than 10% goes through the formal marketing channels.
This clearly shows that 'people are rich yet poor' because they cannot convert
their asset into means of making a living.

In May 2007, during my budget vote speech I made an announcement on the
Livestock Massification Programme (LMP) which, in the next 3 to 4 years, South
Africa could increase its livestock production by 10 to 15%. The massification
programme talks about issues of increasing current national production
efficiencies, therefore expanding the national herd/flock, meeting the national
demand, it is wholly pro-poor in approach, as it aims to establish the basics
for livestock production, kick starting domestic livestock markets and,
supporting and expanding livestock markets.

The Livestock Development Strategy (LDS) identified commercialisation of the
emerging sector as one of the biggest challenges, and a possible solution
towards revolutionising the livestock sector. Following the approval of this
strategy, several interventions targeting the linkage of the second economy
with the first economy were initiated in collaboration with the industry and
other stakeholders.

Commercialisation of goats was identified as key priority, therefore the
'Goat Productivity Improvement Programme' was suggested as an Accelerated and
Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) intervention. This project
will, amongst others, reach a substantial number of farmers in nodal areas such
as the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, North West, KwaZulu-Natal provinces and
other potential areas in the Republic of South Africa.

We are running an annual programme of the Female Farmer of the Year in each
of the provinces, to promote active participation of women in commercial
agriculture. In this programme we have seen small producers who are producing
poultry, vegetables and other livelihood crops, we have seen women who are
producing for the local markets, those who sell their produce in the local and
national markets, such as horticulture and livestock products, others do
exports.

We do have women farming with goats in the Northern Cape, uMadlamini with
sheep in the Eastern Cape. The past winners of this campaign include, amongst
others, Tendani Senoamadi of the Hillcrescent Estate, in Limpopo farming with
bananas, litchi, avocado and guava. Another is Olga Nghatsane from the Abundant
Life Skills project in Mpumalanga farming with poultry. Lastly Thami Zimu from
KwaZulu-Natal who own three farms and doing business in timber and sugar cane.
We must see more of these women on successful agricultural projects.

In restitution we have witnessed that more than 40% of land claimant
households are female headed. We have handled many big and viable projects and
my emphasis has been the participation of women in all of these projects,
including:

* Sugarcane, such as the TSB in Mpumalanga and Illovo Sugar-Milling and
Tongaat Sugar in KwaZulu-Natal
* Tea Estates of Sapekoe in Limpopo, and Majola, Magwa in Eastern Cape
* Forestry claims with sawmilling, pulp, contracting in Limpopo, Mpumalanga,
KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape
* Livestock farming, goats, sheep, dairy, abattoirs, leather and other
products
* Conservation and game farms in Hluhluwe, St Lucia, Maluleke,
Dwesa�Cwebe
* Citrus exports such as Zebediela in Limpopo where the claimants are
exporting
* Macademia and banana farms in Mamahlola and Giba in Mpumalanga province
* Rural livelihoods of Chatha in Keiskammahoek in the Eastern Cape.

Before the end of the current year, the Ministry in conjunction with Women
in Agriculture and Rural Development (Ward) will launch Amanguni and Dipudi
projects in the Northern Cape and a dairy project in the Eastern Cape.

On the overall, Madam Speaker, the Department of Land Affairs' policies,
programmes and projects create an enabling environment for women to access,
use, own, control and manage land. However, challenges of the patriarchal
nature of the society still have an adverse influence and effect on
implementation. This has been the case in the former homelands. The Ministry
through Ward and other women formations or women organisations therefore
aggressively support efforts to ensure that women have access, control,
management and ownership to land that brings about security against poverty,
efficiency with regard to agricultural produce, equality and empowerment.

Malibongwe Igama lamakhosikazi

Issued by: Department of Agriculture
28 August 2007
Source: Department of Agriculture (http://www.nda.agric.za)