We need bold moves on land reform, not populism

Note to editors: The following speech was delivered in Parliament by the DA's Shadow Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nqaba Bhanga MP, during the SONA Debate on Thursday afternoon, February 18 2015. 

No one can deny that few South African dilemmas pull at the emotions of our people than the land issue.

In 1994, the ANC promised to address and remedy the injustices of land removals and dispossession. More than 20 years later we are still waiting for the ANC to make good on this promise.

The ANC government's land reform programme has been an abject failure. It has come nowhere close to reaching its target of transferring 30% of the land to previously disadvantaged communities by 2015.

President Zuma is using every excuse in the book to explain this shortcoming.

There is unacceptably high failure rates in terms of agricultural activity on land transferred through the land reform programme. Minister Nkwinti himself has put the failure rates at between 73 and 90%.

This, Madam Speaker, is the true state of the nation's land reform programme.

The ANC government's populist proposal to cap land ownership effectively caps investment and job creation.

The agricultural sector is heavily indebted and is dependent on the provision financial loans for its survival and growth. Destroy the value of the land on which debt is based and it will destroy the provision of finance. The emerging farmer will suffer as a result.

There will also be a negative impact on share-equity schemes. The ninety share-equity schemes in the Western Cape have an 80% success rate - the highest of all land reform models. If you restrict these agricultural ventures from expanding, you destroy the crown jewel of land reform.

The ANC government has left new emerging farmers to fend for themselves without proper title over the land, capital investment, skills, or access to markets. We need to support emerging farmers to enable them to run successful businesses.

Official figures from 2013 show that an estimated 92% of successful land claimants opted for cash rather than having their land restored to them.

We believe our land reform strategy must be informed not by the need to achieve quantitative land targets, but by how it meets the needs of ordinary South Africans.

One of the DA's greatest concerns is the inconsistency between the ANC's rhetorical statements on land and the practical proposals in the NDP.

The NDP's Land Reform Model, while short on technical detail, provides the best overarching framework for land reform.

Yet, Mr President, you did not mention the NDP once when discussing your proposals for land reform. You have abandoned your own policy plan!

Approximately 21 million South Africans live on more than 17 million hectares of communal land, around 17% of the country's total farmland area. Yet their land rights remain fundamentally insecure.

The DA agrees with the NDP in that insufficient tenure for black farmers in communal areas is the "first major risk" to the objective of building "integrated and inclusive" rural economies.

Your starting point should be to provide people living and working the land in communal areas and former Bantustans with title deeds.

The ANC government's disastrous performance in this area represents a lost opportunity to empower millions of South Africans and has ensured their continued expulsion from economic participation in the land of their forefathers' birth.

The DA believes that there are 4 substantial changes needed to government's land reform approach in order to ensure its success:

- Farm workers must become farm owners through the NDP's approach to Equity Schemes;

- Communal land must be released immediately for reform purposes and citizens must receive legal title to the land on which they live and farm;

- Wherever possible, state-owned land must be released for reform purposes; and

- There needs to be substantial increases in support to emerging farmers as they move through the various stages of business development.
These changes will dramatically enhance the potential of South Africa's land reform programme to redress the legacy of Apartheid.

A vibrant, inclusive rural economy can contribute to economic growth, food security, create jobs and help to alleviate poverty in South Africa. It speaks to the essence of the DA's vision of an Open Opportunity Society and will remain a key priority for all current and future DA governments.

South Africa deserves better.

South Africa deserves a DA government which is serious about accelerated and effective land reform.

Issued by the DA, February 18 2015

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