Post-settlement support

Land has no economic value to land-reform beneficiaries without the requisite support. Without post-settlement support, such programmes will not yield any sustainable development, nor improve rural people’s lives.

The objectives of land-reform programmes are quite clear — the reforms are intended to address the need for land by the previously disadvantaged, to help eradicate poverty and promote economic development as well as improve the quality of life for all.

It should be known that new land owners or land-reform beneficiaries are not financially stable and lack resources to turn their land into commercially viable farms that are able to enhance food security and liberalise the markets.

This will eradicate the currently monopolised markets, thereby improving the livelihoods of rural communities. Adequate post-settlement support, including mass access to training, credit, markets, agricultural subsidies, insurance and agricultural extension services, will go a long way towards the economic advancement of the new land owners.

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform is mandated to facilitate land acquisition in the country but it is always disconcerting to see beneficiaries still trapped in poverty after farms have been handed over to them. The announcement during the department’s budget speech that R700m will be set aside to spruce up post settlement on restituted farms has brought hope.

Redistributed land without the requisite support fails to unlock its full value.

All land-reform beneficiaries should be subsidised until they are self-sustainable. The private sector must also lend a helping hand to show that land reform is everybody’s business.

Mpho Rammutla

Attridgeville