Land Summit I

Striving to ensure the land is shared among those who work it

The Summit on Land and Agrarian Reform, being held in Johannesburg from 27-31 July, will need to practically advance the objective contained in the Freedom Charter that the land shall be shared among those who work it.

Taking place in the year of the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Charter, the summit is expected to review progress made over the last decade in advancing land and agricultural reform, and, importantly, look at what needs to be done to accelerate and deepen the process of transformation.

It has been fifty years since the Congress of the People, meeting in Kliptown on 26 June 1955, declared that: “Restrictions of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land re-divided amongst those who work it to banish famine and land hunger.”

While legal restrictions on ownership of land have been abolished, the devastating legacy of the 1913 Land Act is still reflected in current land ownership patterns, in the structure and composition of the agriculture sector, and in the levels of rural poverty and underdevelopment.

While much progress has been made in the first 11 years of democracy, it is clear that there is still a long way to go. It is also necessary to assess the rate of progress to date, the lessons that have been learnt and the factors that constrain the realisation of the vision of the Freedom Charter.

The summit therefore aims to inform the South African public about progress made in the land and agrarian reform process, acknowledge challenges, identify blockages, and decide what interventions are needed to improve government’s delivery mechanism.

An important component of the summit is its involvement of a broad range of sectors and stakeholders in addressing this issue. The summit will bring together government, land and agrarian reform beneficiaries, landless communities, organised agriculture, civil society, business, social movements, political groupings, labour and other stakeholders. Reminiscent of the principle of participatory democracy which underpinned the formulation of the Freedom Charter, the summit aims to invite South Africans to actively participate in land and agrarian reform, and to participate in finding answers to some of the challenges.

The summit will draw on both local and international experiences of land and agrarian reform, with presentations on experiences of land reform in Mexico and Brazil and other parts of Africa. Commissions will look at land redistribution, land restitution, the land and agrarian reform implementation strategy, land tenure reform, and land use and sustainable human settlements.

The declaration of the Freedom Charter on land was given legal effect in the new democratic constitution adopted in 1996, which places a duty on government to take steps that would enable citizens to gain access to the land “on an equitable basis”. According to the Bill of Rights, people dispossessed of property after 1913 as a result of past discriminatory laws or practices is entitled either to restitution of that property or to equitable redress. Similarly, any person whose tenure of land is legally insecure as a result of racist laws is entitled to legally secure tenure or “comparable redress”.

These constitutional obligations have been at the core of the government’s land reform programme, which has consisted of three pillars – redistribution, restitution and tenure reform. Together, these three programmes have sought to redress the injustices of apartheid land policies, contribute to a thriving agricultural sector and address rural underdevelopment.

After a slow start – only 41 land claims were settled in the first three years – the land restitution programme has picked up momentum. By the end of June this year, over 62,000 claims were settled out of a total of some 79,000 claims. More than 900,000 hectares of land have been restored to their original owners. This does not include those claimants who received monetary compensation instead of land. Government has set 2008 as the deadline for the finalisation of all restitution claims.

The land redistribution programme has also had a slow start. Its aim is to have redistributed at least 30% of white-owned agricultural land by 2014 to the landless poor, labour tenants, farm workers and emerging farmers. Around 3,1 million hectares of land have so far been redistributed through various government redistribution initiatives, representing about 3% of agricultural land. Despite the acceleration of this programme in recent years, it is clear that a number of challenges need to be overcome to realise the targets set by government.

Since 1994, a number of laws have been put in place to clarify and extend security of tenure, particularly to those living on communal land, in the former bantustans, and to labour tenants on commercial farms. The Communal Land Rights Act, promulgated in July 2004, is an important part of this effort, transferring communal land currently held by the state to communities and individuals who live on and have rights to that land.

However, as noted in a paper written by the departments of land affairs and agriculture in preparation for the summit, “undoing the apartheid legacy is not just about land, it is also about continuing to reform the agricultural policy framework which made participation by the black population in agriculture so difficult”.

It has meant, among other things, that the state has had to provide assistance to benificiaries of land restitution, redistribution and tenure reform to ensure that they are able to engage in productive and sustainable agricultural activity. As the Freedom Charter says: “The state shall help the peasants with implements, seed, tractors and dams to save the soil and assist the tillers”.

The first eleven years of democracy have seen important and impressive progress in land reform. The challlenge facing this summit, and South Africa as a whole, is to build on these achievements to accelerate and deepen land and agrarian reform.

Land Summit II

Exploring the paths to faster land reform

Government needs to adopt a more systematic and proactive approach to land acquisition, in close partnership with the landless, to ensure the targets for land redistribution are met by 2014, according to proposals made by the departments of land affairs and agriculture in preparation for next week’s Land Summit.

In reviewing progress made thus far and analysing the challenges and blockages, the departments have made a number of proposals as part of government’s contribution to debate at this important summit. The proposals cover the speeding up of land redistribution; the finalisation of land restitution; the provision of land for housing; ensuring security of tenure for those whose tenure may currently be uncertain; and efffecting transformation within the agricultural sector.

Redistribution

In government’s paper, it notes that South Africa has an active land market, which presents opportunities for acquisition of land for reform purposes. What is required from government, working together with the landless, landowners and other stakeholders, is to conduct systematic assessments of all land needs per area which include demands for restitution, redistribution and tenure reform. It needs to identify suitable land, matching this to identified demand – and where possible, proactively acquiring land to meet this demand.

Negotiations need to take place with landowners to release suitable land, on the scale required and at an affordable price. Where negotiations do not produce results, expropriation should be used, in line with the provisions of the constitution and land reform legislation. The constitution makes provision for expropriation of property in the public interest, and defines ‘public interest’ as including “the nation’s commitment to land reform, and reforms to bring about equitable access to all South Africa’s natural resources”. Expropriation must be subject to just and equitable compensation, “reflecting an equitable balance between the public interest and the interests of those affected”.

The paper also proposes changes to existing laws and policies which restrict farm sizes, arguing that these hamper effficient land delivery and restricts the entry of emerging black farmers into the market outside of government’s land reform programme.

Government is contemplating making proposals on a ceiling on land ownership to address the monopoly of land ownership by the rich. A panel has also been constituted to examine whether and how foreign ownership of land impacts on land reform, foreign investment, and land and property prices.

Restitution

The plan to conclude the legal settlement of all land restitution claims by 2008 has required additional budget allocations by Parliament. It will also mean that the issue of exorbitant land prices will need to be addressed, in part through the reform of the land market and, where necessary, through the use of expropriation.

The time spent processing rural claims needs to be significantly shortened, the paper says, including exploring the possibility of fast-tracking referral to the Land Claims Court “where processes are unduly prolonged”. It is reported that the Land Claims Commission is strengthening its relations with farmers’ unions to work together towards achieving restitution targets.

But the focus cannot simply be on settling all outstanding claims in the shortest possible time. Government also needs to take steps to ensure that people returning to land have sufficient support to make effective use of that land in a sustainable manner. For that reason, the restitution process needs to be accompanied by programmes to provide beneficiaries with the required technical, business, organisational and development planning skills. They also need to be assisted with accessing financing and developing financial management capacity.

Tenure reform

One of the major tasks in tenure reform is the implementation of the Communal Land Rights Act. In this the key challenge is the sheer scale of the programme, affecting close to half the country’s population.

As the majority of communal areas are characterised by extreme poverty and underdevelopment, the provision of legally secure rights in this land needs to contribute to socio-economic development in these areas. According to the government paper, “this means that people will be able to use the newly acquired title to land as surety...to participate effectively in the markets for the factors of production, distribution of the products and the consumption of the goods and services”. The Department of Land Affairs has engaged banking institutions to accept the rights created by the Act as means for participation in the economy.

The process will also need to address conflicting claims to land which may have arisen from apartheid relocations, ensuring that women have equal access to land, and harmonising the various administrative systems and different pieces of legislation which affect communal land.

Government has also made proposals to ensure the security of tenure for people living on commercial farms, which would include consolidation of the current Labour Tenants Act and the Extension of Security of Tenure Act. Among the proposed changes is that the law be more prescriptive than regulatory, and that enforcement mechanisms must be improved. The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is being engaged with a view to improving the legal representation of farm occupants.

The success of all these proposals will rest on government’s ability to improve its implementation mechanisms, ensuring integration and alignment across programmes, between departments and across the three different spheres of government. The paper also notes: “It is vital that we adopt such an approach that would empower organs of civil society including the beneficiary communities to participate meaningfully in the land and agrarian implementation process and which would speed up delivery of land and improve the impact of land and agrarian reform.”