The leaked document made waves in agricultural circles for its proposal that 75% of the content carried by the wholesale and retail sector should be local, and for its recommendation that a regulatory body be set up to control the prices and exports of food and produce.
The 75% proposal was cut from the official document but support for a regulatory body carried through, and there were a number of other suggestions which would, if implemented, have a serious impact on agriculture and land reform.
On land reform, Cosatu called for the productive use of state-owned land by cooperatives, and for the development of a policy to deal with expropriation of unused or unproductive land, including “land currently used for game farming, gold estates and land held for speculative purposes”. The document also proposes a land tax “to aid the process of land redistribution”.
And foreign ownership of land should be regulated in a way that encourages “productive, job-creating foreign investment in agriculture”, while agricultural inputs should be made affordable through state support of machinery and equipment sub-sectors.
The entire forestry sector, the document notes, should be nationalised. In addition to the regulation of food prices and raw produce exports, Cosatu proposed the formation of a rural-development agency to ensure efficient infrastructure maintenance, water and energy, and the implementation of green technologies. The document makes a link between poverty and poor environmental practice, and suggests an array of environmental reforms.
