17th June 2009

Honourable Chairperson and Honourable Members,

There is no doubt about the need and urgency to accelerate land reform in our country and to link it to rural development.  We in the IFP support this link and trust that it will better address the plight of the landless, particularly in the rural areas where, according to Government reports, over 2 million households lack space even for gardening.

However, in the IFP our point of departure is that this all important portfolio has not always been properly handled.  To a large extent it has become a hotly contested terrain, often leading to polarization.  
 

There is polarization between government and traditional leaders, especially where land tenure is concerned.  Government policy is attempting to change communal land ownership into individual land ownership, which will aggravate landlessness leaving land ownership in the hands of the affluent, and erode the role of traditional leaders in the administration of land.

There is polarization between established, mostly white commercial farmers and new black entrants to the industry.  The new entrants need to be monitored by established farmers, but the atmosphere of land restitution, especially with so many invalid claims, makes cooperation and mentoring impossible.  We hear that the Department is advocating for the re-opening of colleges of agriculture and to extend admission to emerging farmers.  While the objective is good, colleges fall under the Department of Education, which has its own priorities and backlogs to address other than Agriculture.  The crucial question, of course is that in a country with such a dire shortage of skills, why were colleges closed in the first place?

There is also polarization between the landless living in informal settlements in our urban areas and the municipalities.  The shacks of the landless are often bulldozed in a most insensitive fashion on municipal orders, leaving the tenants without a roof over their heads. 
 

This is most inhuman and degrading.

I thank you.

Contact:
Liezl van der Merwe
083 611 7470.