Proactive land plan loses steam

Government’s Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (Plas), a flagship programme meant to fast-track flagging land redistribution, is being scaled back. Plas allowed provincial land reform offices to buy large numbers of farms, then lease them to newly settl

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Government’s Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (Plas), a flagship programme meant to fast-track flagging land redistribution, is being scaled back. Plas allowed provincial land reform offices to buy large numbers of farms, then lease them to newly settled farmers. Those who showed the most aptitude would be given the option to buy. Plas allowed government to screen land reform beneficiaries for suitability as farmers before transferring title to them, at a time when collapsing land reform farms were becoming cause for grave concern. It also made it easier to prevent over- or underbudgeting, because the department was no longer dependant on waiting for land grant applications. But critics with international land reform experience pointed out that cumbersome administrative processes made it difficult for the state to get rid of land once it had bought it, and that Land Affairs had neither the skills nor mandate to run commercial farms until they were transferred.

Treasury officials say Plas fell out of favour because the provinces were buying land without identifying future farmers first, in effect creating state farms. “Practicalities dictated this shift away from Plas,” said one official. “You will never find a government official becoming a successful farmer.” The figures reflect Plas’s demise. After jumping from a R308 million allocation at its launch in 2006/07 to R847 million in 2007/08, the Plas budget will stay almost the same in the medium term, while the budget for land-buying grants goes up more than fivefold, from R505 million in 2007/08 to R2,7 billion in 2010/11. Plans to create a special purpose vehicle that would serve as a parastatal land-holding entity have fallen away.