office
7 September 2006
1. My vision for land and agrarian reform
The following are the key land and agrarian reform milestones I have set for
myself to deliver during my term of office as the Minister for Agriculture and
Land Affairs:
1.1. Land Claims Commission to finalise outstanding claims by no later than
March 2008 as directed by the President in the State of the Nation Address on 3
February 2006
1.2. to ensure that land and agrarian reform programme meets its 30%
agricultural land redistribution target by 2014
1.3. to ensure the July 2005 Land Summit recommendations agreed to are
implemented
1.4. to ensure effective participation of women and youth in land and agrarian
reform and maximum beneficiation of these two marginalised groupings from land
and agrarian transformation
1.5. to ensure the state has the capacity to delivery land reform objectives,
this includes the realisation of the alignment and streamlining between the
Departments of Agriculture and Land Affairs for effective, efficient and
seamless land and agrarian service delivery.
2. Land and summit resolutions implementation currently being fast tracked
for speed, effective and collective implementation
In line with the Land Summit, the following are the processes and
interventions that have been put into place to ensure the implementation of the
Summit recommendations:
2.1. a National Steering Committee (NSC) on Post Land Summit (comprising of
government, organised agriculture, organised labour, faith-based organisations,
land service organisations, mass movements, etc) has been formed and is jointly
chaired by the two Directors-General. As a principle, the NSC has agreed on a
representation to the NSC based on sectoral representation rather than
organisational representation.
2.2. The NSC has to date:
* developed and adopted Terms of Reference to guide its operations and has
appointed four Technical Task Teams (on policy, legislation, implementation and
"other")
* categorised all Land Summits into each of these technical streams
* Technical Task Teams are currently working on addressing these issues.
2.3. acknowledging that each individual organisation would have already
worked on some of these issues, therefore Technical Task Teams should:
* collate work done by these different organisations
* have this body of information discussed and interrogated by relevant
Technical Task Teams and make recommendations to the NSC.
2.4. The Technical Task Teams have been meeting to deliver on their mandates
to date and currently workshops have been scheduled for September to address
some of critical issues such as Land Tax and "Willing-Buyer-Willing-Seller"
principle.
3. Some of the key issues relating to the Land Summit and how the Ministry
is addressing these issues:
3.1. Land reform and the rule of law in South Africa
a) Our Constitution provides for a just and equitable land reform process to
address the injustices of the past. It defines land reform as a public
interest, for which:
* land may be expropriated. In the year 2003 Parliament gave powers to the
Minister for Land Affairs to expropriate land for public interest (through the
inclusion of Section 42E in the Restitution of Land Rights Act, 22 of 1994).
Land Reform in South Africa is a public interest and expropriation should
therefore be implemented for purposes of public interest
* the state must consider just and equitable compensation to the landowner.
b) South Africa has an independent judiciary system (which jealously guards
its independence) which will not retreat from ruling any action of the
executive ultra vires if it acts outside its mandate as the both the
Constitution and the Restitution Act clearly spell out the framework for land
reform in South Africa.
The government respects the justice system and the rule of law in South
Africa and we will uphold the decisions of our courts should any of our land
and agrarian reform interventions be found to be unconstitutional by our
courts.
c) The South African (SA) government is also committed to security of land
tenure for all its citizens, black and white and this can be read in the
Freedom Charter where it states "that South Africa belongs to all who live in
it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless
it is based on the will of all the people."
3.2. "Willing-Buyer-Willing-Seller" principle
a) "Willing-Buyer-Willing Seller principle" does not and should not apply to
restitution, as restitution is a rights-based programme, with the Constitution
and the Restitution Act providing a framework for the implementation of the
restitution process. Once a claim has been validated, there is no need for the
willing buyer, willing seller approach on the claimed land as this should be
understood to be as a "forced sale" as there is only one buyer (the State) and
one seller (the landowner)
b) The Constitution stipulates that the State must consider just and
equitable compensation to the landowner. In determining this compensation, the
government must take:
* into account the current use of the land
* historical acquisition and use of the property
* its market value as well as the extent of direct state investment and subsidy
used for capital improvements on the property.
3.3. Pro-active land acquisition strategy - What does the strategy
entail?
a) The pro-active strategy deals with two possible approaches: a needs-based
approach and a supply-led approach. The focus is on the State as a lead driver
in land redistribution rather than the current beneficiary-driven
redistribution. This means that the State will pro-actively target land and
match this with the demand or need for land.
b) This approach has several advantages, as it will:
* promote redistribution in areas where the land market has failed in relation
to demand-led redistribution
* facilitate planning of commercial redistribution projects where subdivision
is necessary and desirable
* promote the acquisition of going concerns
* ensure better quality of land for redistribution.
c) The following are some implementation details of the approach:
This approach is based on purchasing advantageous land e.g.:
* because of the property's location
* because it is especially amenable to subdivision
* because it is suitable for particular agricultural activities that government
would like to promote vis-�-vis redistribution
* the pro-active strategy is also harmonised with the Department of Housing�s
various programmes linked to the fast tracking of housing delivery
* the strategy supports the concept of the agricultural development corridors
and should increase economic growth and development of rural towns (developing
agriculture along the major arterial routes (N1, N2 etc), guided by the
principal of exploiting agricultural potential in the rural towns scattered
along these routes).
3.4. Areas-based planning
Much work has also commenced in this strategic area, which was not only also
raised at the summit but also at the recent July Cabinet Lekgotla as this forms
part of the Social and Economic Cluster Programme of Action. This plan features
amongst others, the following:
* implementation of concrete steps to eliminate the quality of living spaces
inherited from apartheid
* implementation of agreement reached on sale of land for housing development
and allocating land close to economic centres
* financing requirements for farmer support programme
* reviving agricultural state and state-supported community schemes
3.5. Ownership, use and investment in South African land by non-South
Africans
The Ministry for Agriculture and Land Affairs appointed a panel of experts
to investigate and advise the Ministry on the development of a policy framework
to regulate ownership use and investment in the land by foreigners. The panel's
final report is expected to be finalised by November 2006 and this is the
expected process following the completion of the report:
* the Ministry and the two departments will interrogate the report and its
recommendations
* the Ministry will table the report to Cabinet for deliberations
* the Ministry will develop a plan to implement Cabinet decisions on the
matter.
4. Several fallacies and myths have been communicated about land reform in
South Africa � contrary to established facts!
There are several myths and misconceptions banded around regarding land and
agrarian reform in South Africa, some of which include the following:
4.1. That there is sufficient land in South Africa to meet the land and
agrarian reform needs and therefore there is no need for government to target
white-owned land for land reform purposes.
The South African Government does not have sufficient land (state land) to
meet the 30% land required for redistribution. As such, land in the hands of
white farms will be used for land restitution and redistribution.
a) The total land surface in South Africa is 122 million hectares:
* 82 Million hectares of agricultural land
* 24 Million hectares of State land
* 16 Million hectares of other land (cities, rocks, rivers, dams, etc.)
30% of the 82 million hectares of agricultural land is equal to
approximately 24 million hectares of agricultural land, which will be restored
to black owners by 2014. By 2014 we shall be having approximately 58 million
hectares of agricultural land that will still be in the hands of white
owners.
b) Most of the State land is encumbered and therefore not available for
redistribution:
* about 12 million hectares of this is under communal ownership in the
ex-Bantustan areas
* 5 million is under conservation and bio-diversity both nationally and in the
provinces
* 5,8 million is held by other state departments such as Forestry, Education,
Health, Defence, SAPS etc
* only 1,2 million hectares, under the South African Development Trust (SADT),
is available for redistribution purposes. So far we have redistributed no less
than 776 000 hectares of that South African Development Trust land.
Clearly State land is not adequate to address the skewed ownership of land
in the country.
4.2. That there is, at any given time, 4% of agricultural land in the market
place therefore government should only target this 4% land in the market and by
so doing, there would be no need to target white-owned land for land
reform.
Whilst government will continue to pursue the acquisition of land in the
market place to meet land and agrarian objectives, government is not looking
for any land, but land for specific purposes: land for agricultural purposes,
human settlement, etc. Therefore any land available may not meet the
developmental, strategic or land use objectives of the government.
4.3. That land and agrarian reform poses a threat to food security in the
country
The government is committed to restoring the dignity of our people. Taking
into account that there was a systematic de-skilling of black people, the State
is committed to skilling land and agrarian reform beneficiaries to a level
where they will compete not only in South African markets but also world
markets. Government has therefore:
a) Embraced the approach of strategic partnerships which will enable and
assist the beneficiaries to use land productively once the land has been
restored to them
b) Introduced CASP (Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme), which is
administered by the provinces and has, amongst others, the following as its
objectives:
* the provision of skills
* the provision of support in terms of on and off farm infrastructure.
Since the inception of the programme in 2004, we have begun to see its
impact on our emerging farmers
c) Initiated, in addition to CASP, a credit scheme Micro-Agricultural
Finance Institutions of South Africa (MAFISA) as a means to address the
financial needs of our emerging farmers. Under this scheme, emerging farmers
are able to make loans of up to R 100 000, payable within 12 months at an
interest rate lower than that of commercial banks.
d) Established other programmes such as the co-operative society scheme and
Agri-Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta), all of which seek to
empower our land reform beneficiaries.
e) Launched the AgriBEE, following the promulgation of Black Economic
Empowerment (BEE) in 2003 as an opportunity for current land owners to
demonstrate their commitment to the transformation of the agricultural sector
in South Africa. The Department of Agriculture is currently finalising the
charter with stakeholders.
5. Alignment between the Departments of Agriculture and Land Affairs for
effective, efficient land and agrarian reform delivery
The Summit also raised concern about the ability of the State's (as well as
the stakeholders) to implement successfully, land and agrarian land reform at
the required scale, at the same time leaving a legacy of sustainable
projects.
To address this concern, the Department of Land Affairs embarked on an
ambitious project, Project Tsoseletso, to reposition the department to deliver
land reform. The process has included the realignment of the two departments,
which will include, inter alia, governance, priorities setting and performance
review process, programmatic integration, information and knowledge management
and policy research and development.
6. Integration of women in land and agrarian reform
Women do not only constitute the majority in terms of the demographics of
our country, but also play a key role in our land and agrarian landscape as
workers, as heads of families in the rural areas and also as agri-business
people in their own right.
Just two weeks ago women in land and agriculture met in KwaZulu-Natal and
amongst others, unveiled their declaration to organise themselves, to set up
and launch a Rural Women Association (on 15 October) and mobilise women at a
provincial, district and local level to ensure that their voices and
aspirations find their way into the agenda of the World Congress on Rural Women
South Africa, which we will be hosting in March next year.
In our attempt to ensure women can play a more significant role in land and
agrarian sphere, we need to mobilise the experiences of our counterparts in
Africa and elsewhere as they too, once experienced the same challenges we are
currently facing, and there is more to learn from their experiences.
Issued by: Department of Agriculture
7 September 2006
