08 June 2004
Chairperson!!
Minister and Deputy Minister
Members
The Land Restitution, Land Redistribution is part of government's programme to return Land to the dispossessed poor people of South Africa. To have land in your position is the very important tool for Communities to have.
How do we link the land restitution, land redistribution to deal with the poverty, job creation and to make sure that the people whom the land has been given/return to them is sustainable and they are able to live, eat, feed their families, school, cloth children as part of poverty and radication, we need to eradicate poverty, feed poor South Africans.
The Department of Land Affairs had a motto of "Accelerating Land Delivery for Sustainable Development" We therefore need to ask a question, how far, are we sustaining the land that has been delivered, or is the Land already delivered sustainable/or are the people who had the land being assisted to be able to make use of the land or not. Are they technically or otherwise trained? If not why? What is the role of the ARC (Agricultural Research Council) in supporting the second economy as apposed to the first economy? If we accelerate the land delivery, which I agree, how much is the sustainable development is done? Does the Department of Land Affairs have capability to follow the land delivery with the land sustainability and development? If not what is the department doing about that? I will come back on this matter later.
Chairperson
I believe that there are certain institutions that are supposed to assist in the acceleration of land reform and delivery process like Khula on the Khula's Strategic focus, with the Private Public Partnership arrangement to accelerate land Reform delivery Process I am told, but if we look at their progress so far in relation to their Strategic focus is surprising, they have done nothing for the poor people. In their presentation (Khula) to the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs on 4th instant, it was clear that Khula had signed the Agency Agreement with Department of Land Affairs in 1998 and the said Agency Agreement was launched in May 1999, there was not much that has been done to accelerate land reform delivery process, five to six years later there was not much done by this Khula that will or had benefited the Poor of the Poorest or the Core Clients of the Department of Land Affairs which is Landless and tenure insecure communities, emergent black farmers to date. How can we turn around this institution to benefit the poor? To make sure that those who got land back are able to make use of the land to eradicate poverty to enable them to feed themselves without looking for employment to be employed. How can we create more jobs out of the acceleration of the land reform delivery process?
Chairperson
The Department of Land Affairs need to re-look at their Agency Agreement with Khula, and take note of what Khula has done for the Department so far, whether the money that has been given to Khula by both the Department and the Donors is doing what was agreed by both parties, is Land Reform delivery process still in the Khula's Agenda?
Chairperson
To me from far or at a distance it looks like they are more concentrated on Equity, Share Schemes which does not benefit much the Department of Land Affairs Core Clients the landless and tenure insecure communities, emergent farmers at all. 76 % spent on Equity Shares and 24 % only spent on Mortgage loans? Land Purchase, Is this scenario correct? To me, its not. What is more surprising is the Khula's Impact Analysis (Provincial Spread) (Millions) out of 62.36 % Expenditure 40.83 % Expenditure goes to Western Cape and the balance goes to the Eight other Provinces, other got nothing from Khula for the past five to six years, since the agency agreement was launched.
Chairperson
Lets look at the vision of the Department of Land Affairs! An equitable and sustainable land dispensation that promotes social and economic development? The President in his State of Nation Address spoke about Two Economies, how do we then address the gap between the first and the second economy by delivering the land to landless people and make sure that this land is sustainable. The vision and mission of the Department of Land Affairs is Addressed Adequately.
When we celebrate the ten years of Democracy, the South Africans particularly the poor of the poorest should feel that it is the Ten-years of democracy, we must encourage the vukuzenzele, the creation of jobs, the eradication of poverty, the sustainable development. The commission on restitution of Land rights when come before the committee promised us that they will meat the deadline set by the President of 2005 for Land restitution we hope that maybe by that time, we would have been able to address partly the injustices of racially based land dispossessions of the past, the need for a more equitable distribution of land ownership the reduction of poverty and the contribution to economic growth would have been addressed.
Chairperson
Last Term this Parliament past the Communal Land Rights Bill among others was to make sure that we travel the last mile in re-dressing the Acceleration of the land reform service delivery to the rightful owners of land.
Some of the white Commercial Farmers they need to be reminded that during the apartheid days the then owners of the land were not given a chance to negotiate for re-settlement, they were forcefully removed to pave way for white Commercial Farmers to settle. For example one white farmer has been quoted being said " If in Levubu area, the claim goes through, he will leave the Country, if there's no future for him in Levubu area, there's no future for him in South Africa" This is nonsense.
I want to tell this particular white farmer that, there is a future for him in South Africa and anywhere in South Africa where he wants to settle, but there is no way that we are going to be threatened by certain individual white farmers who are resisting the government's policy because it's a black government and Agricultural Transformation is lead by a black women. These people or South Africans will have to choose whether to ride a train while it is moving at a slow pace or to regret it at a later stage when the Train is gone, because this Train is not going to wait for him. I then hope that he is not going to blame the government tomorrow if he misses the Train, but want to appeal to these people to please co- operate with the government, sell your land while its still time before its too late.
Chairperson,
The other white farmer said "It will be better if we were to be asked to subsidised Education for Ravele farmers or a mentorship programme, rather than giving the land back, maybe its a better way of empowering black farmers" This is a ridiculous idea to exchange the redistribution/restitutions of land to their owners by this master and servant thinking, because he want these poor, black people to continue being employees of the white commercial farmers. The Transvaal Agricultural Union's Manager of Property rights has been quoted as said "with the government giving itself the Power to expropriate land it was creating a situation like that of Zimbabwe" I want to ask the said Manager, when did this government ever exercised this clause, despite the Transvaal Agricultural Union's Attitude against this government by opposing every Policy/Legislation, we have been very patient will them, but I want to warn them, that our patients are running out, the day will be one when we have to say enough is enough. This government has been avoiding this clause or Power for sometime now, we have never tried to use this clause, but TAU (Transvaal Agriculture Union) has been provoking the government to use this clause, we will continue negotiating with them where we are good at, but please Transvaal Agriculture Union do not provoke us, we shall respond accordingly.
I want to have a strong plea to TAU (Transvaal Agriculture Union) to co-operate while time is still right for them, but time is running out (Watch is ticking)
I also believe the Transvaal Agriculture Union is encouraging their members to resist the government efforts or generosity to negotiate and buy land from their members. Albeit their members got it free from the then Apartheid government, and the Land Bank gave them loans at a very cheaper interest rate to build the infrastructure and the productivity of the land that they are occupying now, because they were heavily subsidised to get their improvements, equipments and the like.
The said money and wealth was produce by the sweat and blood of the African People working in the farms, now they (white farmers) are claiming to be the productive farms.
There are white farmers who are very good and who are co-operating with the government very well. I want to single-out Mr Retief Redelinghuys for his bold move to break ranks with others (from North West) and co-operate with the government and sell his piece of land and move on with other pieces of land and continue farming and not threatened to leave the country like others.
Chairperson
Most of the land referred to the then government and landowners had been developed into irrigation Plots during the 1920's and 1930's. Later the birth of the National Party, the land was consolidated, sub-divided and distributed to white farmers free of charge. What more do they want? They did not buy these farms.
Chairperson
Our intention and responsibility is to improve the lives of our communities, the dignity of the poor South Africans need to prevail.
The President in his State of the Nation Address in May 2004, said, "The Department of Agriculture will increase its support to agricultural activities in the Communal Land areas as well as other small-scale Agriculture drawing on resources within the Agriculture Credit Scheme, ensuring the implementing of the Land reform for Agricultural Development Process and the comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme", he went further to suggest that "once approved the Communal Land Rights Bill will improve the possibilities for better economic utilisation of Communal Land."
Chairperson
We therefore need to move faster than before. People have been waiting for to long, we need to proceed with transformation of Agriculture and to accelerate the restitutions of land to the landless poor people. We need to encourage people to move faster with the Vukuzenzele programmes to eradicate poverty and create more work for them who are unemployed, we also need to look at the pace of formation of the co-operatives, which may also assist in small job creation. The government need to move faster and faster in the creations of the situation for the co-operative movements and to have a legal support and a well strong institutional framework to be part of the Eradication of poverty. We need to allow the co-operatives to access the government support mechanisms to enable them to survive. We also need to address the link between the Agricultural Transformation in particular and the right of access to land on the other and the socio-economic right. It is also clear that it pushes the burden of emphasis or the responsibility to the government or the state to create condition to enable citizens to gain access to land on an equitable basis. We need to eradicate poverty and realise the better life for all citizens of South Africa.
The President said, "We committed ourselves to:
We need to accelerate the land redistribution for socio-economic reasons, for the betterment of those who were forcefully removed by the previous regime, which were disposed. The court processes in terms of the present restitution Act have proven to be lengthy and expensive. The court therefore not a viable option for settling claims at the scale required by public demand and the targets announced by the President. We therefore need to reconsider whether we need to revoke the Expropriation Clause to speed the process.
Section 25 (7) of the Constitution states that a person or a community that lost property from 1913 due to discriminatory laws is entitled to restitutions or redress. The constitutional court in the Grootboom Case recognised access to land on a socio-economic right.
The Constitutional Court in the Grootboom Case concluded that economic and social rights provisions in the Constitutions entrench the right to land, to adequate housing and health care, food, water and social security. It is very much clear that the link has been made between the right of access to land and the socio-economic right. We need to bring back the dignity to our people that way taken away from them, when they were forcefully removed from their land, which belongs to them then.
Time is now to Vuk'uzenzele by getting a piece of land or a farm, to be landowner in your own country as a South African, irrespective of race, gender, creed or sex and get down to work.
The critical issue here again is the fact that the status quo is taking a very long time and expensive process before agreement could be reached or the court case takes its own time, between both parties and the beneficiaries, are the most affected parties in the process. Can we reconsider the expropriation clause to speed up the process?
We therefore need to get down to work in a people's contract to build a better South Africa for a better life for all South Africans.