The Ministry for Rural Development and Land Reform held a consultative meeting with the representatives of the land restitution beneficiaries in the KwaZulu-Natal province to iron out some of the challenges that have over the years hampered progress in the implementation of the land reform programme. Accompanied by the Premier for the KwaZulu-Natal; the Deputy Minister for Rural Development and Land Reform; and the MEC Lydia Johnson, Minister Gugile Nkwinti indicated that the meeting was intended to give beneficiaries a platform not only to highlight their challenges, but to also come up with solutions to the challenges affecting them.
“Our main objective with this exercise is to close the gap between government and land reform beneficiaries,” the minister told about 600 delegates representing beneficiaries including Amakhosi; Communal Property Institutions; Labour Tenants; and claimant community members, who attended the consultative meeting at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in Durban on 17 December 2010.
Acknowledging the fact that the Land Reform Programme has not always achieved the intended outcomes, Minister Nkwinti emphasised the need to review certain aspects of the policies in order to come up with more pragmatic solutions for the land reform programme.
The meeting culminated in the appointment of a reference group tasked with the responsibility of developing an action plan with short, medium, and long term targets to deal with the recommendations which emanated from the meeting regarding the issue of addressing pressing challenges and thus taking the land reform process in the province forward. Members of the reference group include representatives from Amakhosi; Communal Property Institutions; Labour Tenants; as well as members of the claimant communities.
Some of the key challenges that emerged from the robust engagement among delegates included the issues relating to post settlement support and customer care; legal entities and governance; Amakhosi and the restitution process; as well as labour tenants and the restitution process.
The meeting with restitution beneficiaries forms part of the build up to the stakeholder engagement on the Green Paper on land reform which is currently before Cabinet. The stakeholder engagement process will get underway once all the government internal stakeholders have been engaged.
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