Speedy land reform plans get a thumbs-up

Much support was voiced for the introduction of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) by Lulama Xingwana, minister of agriculture and land affairs, to accelerate the pace of land redistribution at the budget vote recently held in parliament.
Issue Date 1 June 2007

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Much support was voiced for the introduction of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) by Lulama Xingwana, minister of agriculture and land affairs, to accelerate the pace of land redistribution at the budget vote recently held in parliament.

The SPV will be a “one-stop-shop” for all land and agricultural support services and will coordinate settlement support throughout the value chain in partnership with the private sector and civil society organisations. It will decentralise support services to the lowest level of delivery. New land acquisition models and funding mechanisms have also been introduced to hasten the pace of land delivery. The department has also introduced an area-based Land Reform Planning Tool to align land reform priorities of provinces, municipalities and other sectors. Land reform as a result will form an integral part of municipal development plans and these plans will be reviewed annually to ensure that ­interventions are responding to the needs of people, according to Xingwana. The number of claims settled by the Commission on Land Restitution by the end of the last financial year increased from 71 645 to 74 417, meaning that 93% of the total 79 696 claims lodged have been settled. Gauteng only has 10 claims left.

The department is implementing various strategies to accelerate restitution, but Xingwana admitted there would be claims that would not be settled before 2008 due to the following factors: the Land Claims Court adjudication takes a long time; conflict among traditional leaders on issues such as jurisdiction, land ownership and boundary disputes between communities; disputes between landowners on issues such as land prices or validity of claims; and claimants who cannot be traced. The department will also establish a Land Rights Management Facility that will serve as a “one-stop-shop” for all land rights-related support services for farm dwellers. These services will include law enforcement and compliance, mediation and facilitation services, evictions monitoring including a toll-free number, and an ongoing awareness campaign. Xingwana voiced the department’s concern over human rights violations of farmers, but more specifically farm­workers. She said much still needs to be done to improve law enforcement and fill loopholes in legislation. A comprehensive report is therefore being compiled to provide an objective perspective on the living conditions of farm dwellers in SA. The government has also completed a draft strategy for biofuels.

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 The strategy estimates a 10-million-ton crop production from three million cultivated hectares per growing season, of which two million hectares will be based in the former homelands. The minister assured delegates that biofuel crop production would not be at the expense of food security. – Glenneis Erasmus