Land reform needs to be seriously tackled

LAND reform in South Africa has fallen far short of expectations and official targets in every respect in the alleviation of poverty and unemployment, in the restructuring of the agricultural economy to create opportunities for previously disadvantaged people and in protecting small farmers and farm workers from eviction. Less than 10 percent of land has been redistributed to date, and if current performance continues there is no likelihood that the target of one-third will be achieved even by 2025.

Black people need their ancestral land. Many of them aim to utilise it for agricultural production (subsistence or commercial), for settlement or for non-agricultural enterprises. Without land, it will be impossible for them to participate in the mainstream economy. South Africa should speed up the redistribution of land to the black majority. Over the past 21 years of democracy, gains have been made, but these have not fully translated into the envisaged vision of vibrant, equitable and sustainable rural communities.

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform has indicated that they would pass laws and implement policies designed to undo the injustices of the past.

So far we have seen interdiction of AgriParks, there has been debate on the Policy on Strengthening the Relative Rights of People Working the Land (50/50), the establishment of District Land Committees and Land Ceilings. Fifty pilot projects have been identified across provinces, and organised agriculture has been proactive in coming up with proposals.

The roll-out of Agri-Parks into 27 priority districts is set to change the rural landscape of South Africa and usher in economic transformation. The R2 billion initiative is a response to President Jacob Zuma’s nine-point plan for radical economic transformation and job creation. The Agri-Parks will result in increased farming production, the development of smallholder farmers and agro-processing, and the marketing of produce to ensure the revival of black commercial farmers.

According to Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Gugile Nkwinti, the class of black commercial farmers was deliberately destroyed by the 1913 Natives Land Act. This destruction was reinforced by other subsequent pieces of legislation enacted by colonial and apartheid regimes.

Set on undoing the past wrongs, the government’s land restitution policy of 1994 had the target of redistributing 30 percent of the 82 million hectares of agricultural land under white ownership to previously disadvantaged individuals by 2014, but meeting this target has proved to be challenging. It became clear that a multipronged approach was needed to speed up the pace of land reform and redistribution.

As part of efforts toward healing the psychological wounds of forced removal and dispossession of land, the government reopened the land claims process from July 2015 until 2019. The response thus far has been overwhelming. Nearly 56 000 claims have been lodged with the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights. There is a need for the government to review the laws that govern how land should be redistributed. The government, land owners, civil society organisations and citizens should work together to make land reform a success.

TSHEPO DIALE NKWE ESTATE