State is pushing to finalise 1,400 claims
The government plans to finalise just more than 1,400 restitution claims at a cost of R9.3bn over the next three years to achieve redress and equitable access to land, finance minister Tito Mboweni said on Wednesday.
This comes amid debate on land expropriation without compensation, which has rattled investors. The ANC resolved in 2017 to back the expropriation of land without compensation as a way of accelerating land reform and addressing skewed ownership patterns that have changed little since SA’s first democratic elections in 1994. Parliament’s ad hoc committee looking into the issue is aiming to table a bill on the proposed amendments to the constitution by the end of March 2021.
“Government plans to finalise 1,409 restitution claims
at a cost of R9.3bn over the next three years to achieve redress and equitable access to land,” Mboweni said. The department of agriculture, land reform & rural development had also set aside R896.7m for postsettlement support, he said.
This would include the recruitment of about 10,000 experienced extension officers, who would form a link between research and farmers to boost skills and production.
Over the medium term a total of R14.6bn was allocated to finalise outstanding land restitution claims and support land-reform initiatives, including for subsistence and smallholder farmers. An additional R1.2bn in the blended finance programme is earmarked for emerging commercial farmers.
Touching on the broader agricultural sector, the Budget Review highlighted the fact that the sector recorded strong growth in 2020, with an annual gross value added of 11.3% in the first three quarters of 2020 relative to the same period in 2019. Growth in each quarter was underpinned by production recoveries in horticulture, grain and livestock.
“The outlook for 2021 is positive, although growth is not expected to match that of 2020. Favourable weather conditions and strong international demand for agricultural exports will continue to support production growth,” it said.
Trade disruptions, for example through resumptions of global lockdowns, could threaten the sector’s strong export performance. Over the medium term, policy uncertainty and non-tariff barriers such as quotas and quality standards pose challenges to the sector, the review says.
The agricultural sector contributes about 3% to GDP and nearly 900,000 jobs.
According to recent data from the Agricultural Business Chamber of SA (Agbiz), the country shipped $10.2bn (about R150bn) worth of produce in 2020, or 3% more than in the previous year. This was despite the pandemic-induced economic uncertainty, and concerns around land reform. The nearrecord-high exports were driven primarily by large domestic agricultural output, supported by good weather.