Christo says: Land reform and the AAMP
[{“type”:”text”,”content”:”#### Historical overviewnnSoon after the first election of 1994, the South African government started to implement an ambitious policy of land reform. nnThis included a land redistribution programme, aimed at broadening access to land, a land restitution programme to restore land or provide alternative compensation to those dispossessed as a result of racially discriminatory laws and practices since 1913, and a tenure reform programme to secure the rights of farmworkers, farm dwellers and labour tenants living under insecure arrangements on land owned by others, including the state and private landowners. nnGovernmentu2019s early vision of land reform, set out in both the 1996 Green Paper and the 1997 White Paper, emphasised multiple objectives such as addressing dispossession and injustice, creating a more equitable distribution of land, reducing poverty and assisting economic growth, providing security of tenure, establishing sound land administration and contributing to national reconciliation. nnSettlement and tenure security in informal settlements and urban areas were also to be supported. The primary beneficiaries of land reform were defined as the victims of land dispossession, farm workers, labour tenants, communal area residents, people living in informal settlements, small-scale farmers, women and youth.nn#### Land reform programmes nnGovernment introduced various programmes to assist with land reform. Between 1994 and 1999 government provided poor households with Settlement and Land Acquisition Grants (SLAG) (R16,0003 per household) to purchase land. nnTo address land reformu2019s shortcomings, the government replaced SLAG with the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD) programme, in 2001. Because LRAD required beneficiaries to contribute to the cost of land, it was criticised as shifting policy focus from the poor to the black elite with resources. nnLRAD was replaced in 2006 by the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS) as the primary programme for land redistribution. State officials were empowered to buy farms on the open market and allocate them to selected beneficiaries on leasehold tenure. nn#### Progress to datennIn a recent question and answer session, the minister of agriculture, land reform and rural development (DALRRD), Thoko Didiza stated her department is the custodian of a total of 10 454 652 hectares of land. 1 289 583 hectares of this are subject to active long-term agricultural leases in the past five years. During the past five years 8 173 hectares were transferred to individuals and businesses, while 104 850 hectares were transferred to communities by her department. nnAccording to figures by the South African government has pumped more than R60 billion into land reform projects since 1994. Despite this investment, the land reform programme has not stimulated development in the targeted rural areas. nnIn 2020, minister Thoko Didiza also announced that as part of governmentu2019s contribution to the land reform programme, 896 farms measuring 700 0000 hectares of underutilised or vacant state land were to be made available to deserving beneficiaries. nnA report by the South African government’s financial and fiscal commission shows that land reform as a mechanism for agricultural development and job creation has failed. A survey by the commission in Limpopo province, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape found that most land reform farms show little or no agricultural activity, the land reform beneficiaries earn little to no income, and most of those beneficiaries seek work on surrounding commercial farms instead of actively farming their own land. nnAnd where farming is taking place on land reform farms, these farms operate below their full agricultural potential and are mainly used for subsistence agriculture. On average, crop production had decreased by 79% since conversion to land reform. In the three provinces surveyed, job losses averaged 84%, with KwaZulu-Natal suffering a 94% loss in jobs. nnAccording to the farmer register recently launched by the DALRRD on farmland occupied by small scale farmers, 69 489 farmers farm on land with permission to occupy rights, 3 424 farmers farm on land redistribution farms,
1 294 farmers farm on land restitution farms and 5 629 on private land. The farm register however does not indicate levels of success or levels of investment either through production or capital expenditure loans. nnOn commercial farms, however total farming debt increased by 7,5% for the year ended 31 December 2021 and was estimated at R204 841 million, compared to R190 586 million at the end of 2020.”,”position”:0,”id”:”L8W7poIMG4IBdcJK”}]