NEWS & ANALYSIS

Govt must set pace and price of land reform - Stone Sizani

The ANC MP says many sellers are impeding land acquisition and land tenure rights

Speech by Stone Sizani, ANC MP and chairperson of the portfolio committee on rural development & land reform, national assembly, parliament, Cape Town, June 17 2009

Mr P S SIZANI: Hon Speaker, Chairperson, hon Members, Mr Minister; over the past 15 years in the life of our democracy, South Africans have been enjoying all forms of freedom that have been bestowed on us by many sacrifices of thousands of Black people in general and Africans in particular, so that we should never go back to the oppressive past in the dark days of apartheid.

Many in the rural areas have pinned their hopes and aspirations on this House and the government in particular, for them to eventually enjoy some of the freedom enjoyed by the rest of the nation. However, this has not been possible, because in the words of the 52nd conference of the ANC resolution, I quote:

Colonialism and apartheid were rooted in the dispossession of African people of their land, the destruction of the African farming and the super exploitation of the wage labourers including farm workers and their families. Poverty, inequality and joblessness are the consequences of centuries of underdevelopment and exploitation consciously perpetrated on the majority of the population which had its most destructive and enduring impacts on rural South Africa.

Consequently, the structural faults that characterised the apartheid rural economy remain with us today. The rural areas still lack basic infrastructure, such as roads, water and electricity supply. This lack of infrastructure entrenches the problems of chronic poverty and limits the potential of communities to sustain economic growth, rural livelihood and social development.

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act No 108 0f 1996) acknowledges this fact; that dispossession needs to be redressed and social justice must be restored in order for our land to heal the divisions of the past that were the product of this land possession. The supreme law of the land, this Constitution, further agrees that injustice resulted in the deprivation of many Africans of land and freedom. The indigenous people were robbed of all the fundamental human rights, thus creating a class that possesses land and a class that, actually, is landless.

The Constitution further compels all the democratically elected representatives to restore land ownership and economic productivity of all South Africans and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights in line with the dictates of the Freedom Charter which states: "The land shall be shared among those who work it."

As would be attested by evidence across the globe that rights cannot be awarded, nor can economic liberty of any nation be achieved without state intervention, evidence in Latin America shows that no state acting alone without the participation of its neighbours will win this battle.

Remember, it's always greener on the other side. If we green South Africa the Zimbabweans will come over the fence, like we green KZN and the people in the Eastern Cape go over the fence and this will be the case in this regard. Therefore, South Africa must follow the dictates of this constitution and other laws by responding to this challenge.

South Africans of all shades and creeds accept our position that, I quote:

"Rural development is a central pillar of our struggle against unemployment, poverty and inequality. High levels of rural poverty and inequality inhibit the growth of our economy and undermine our efforts to ensure that growth is more equitably shared among our people."

However, land tenure and access to the land is the biggest constraint for this to be attained. Insecurity of tenure, especially among farm dwellers and people living in former Bantustans constrains any means of rural livelihoods. In the words, again, of the 52nd conference resolution of the ANC, I quote:

"A more equitable distribution of land is necessary, both to undo the injustices of history as well as to ensure higher productivity, shared growth, employment and sustainable livelihoods. Successful land reform means integrating land acquisition with support for new farmers. Therefore, our approach to land acquisition should include, where possible, planned acquisition and distribution, expropriation and demand-driven transactions."

You may have heard the Minister talking about the willing buyer willing seller model not working and this being attested to by many stakeholders and that the Ministry in now going to talk to the farmers, the landlords and the corporations that hold land to try and find a common ground between the two parties.

This House, since 1994, has accepted the constitutional imperative of the restoration of land rights and instructed the democratic government to distribute 30% of agricultural land to the landless South Africans via land restitution tenure reform with post settlement support. Only four percent of agricultural land has since been distributed to the landless rural people and this has not resulted in the realisation of the people's full potential to transform social relations, combat rural poverty and promote rural development. We, therefore, need to examine why rural life in South Africa condemns rural populations to grinding poverty, ignorance and disease.

The Minister in the Strategic Plan of the Department insists that the department is ensuring that adequate resources are available for rural development, landf reform and agrarian change at household level by integrating land and water rights into the common programme as a means of empowering rural communities to participate in a comprehensive rural development programme in a way which will restore their freedom.

Over the past 15 years, the democratic government has been guided by Section 25 of the constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act No 108 0f 1996) and has succeeded in settling 95% of the claims lodged enabling the restoration of at least 2,3 million hectares of land to victims of racial dispossession.

How can we then redistribute 19,3 million hectares, which is worth 20 billion rand, over the next five years, if we could not do that over the past 15 years? This perhaps, in my view, is too little land transferred and it's  getting dangerously too late for many, as many South Africans are in danger of wallowing in squalor and hunger as grinding poverty in the rural areas is visiting many of these communities.

To change this, the government needs personnel that is motivated and skilled to speed up redistribution. However, irrespective of the institutional capacity of the department, the framework which guides the department is constraining and gives them impediments; you've heard the Minister talking about willing buyer willing seller. But additional to that, resources at the disposal of the department are far too limited to succeed within the target times set. This is partly because to redress these imbalances of the past, the government must have enabling laws that can allow the pace and price of land acquisition to be in the hands of the state, rather than in the hands of the sellers.

There are many sellers that impede land acquisition or land tenure rights to vulnerable groups. The state may hold land, and I'm addressing your question hon Trollip, the state holds land, part of the land that the state holds is for defence purposes; part of it for environmental purposes; part of it for future expansion of current activities of the state. [Time allotted ended]

Source: Hansard, Parliament, Cape Town (note: this is an unrevised and unedited transcript)

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