Land reform: Committee unhappy with lack of progress

An extensive consultation process on land and agrarian reform should be the next step in revising government’s outdated 1997 White Paper on Land Policy. This is according to the National Assembly’s Rural Development and Land Reform Committee, which last week tabled a report on the annual performance plans of the departments it oversees, notes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. Among other things, the report notes the ‘many loosely connected … legislative amendments’ flowing from a 2011 Green Paper on Land Reform yet to be fine-tuned and gazetted as official government policy. Against that backdrop, the report expresses concern about the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform’s ‘silence’ on land expropriation without compensation as a mechanism for ‘fast-tracking’ land redistribution – especially in the absence of a ‘test case on just and equitable compensation’.

Noting how much state-owned land is apparently available for ‘immediate occupation by landless communities and individuals’, the report cites this as just one example of factors contributing to the ‘slow pace of land reform’ and redistribution. Given that this is now a ‘national priority’, it calls for a ‘significant’ increase in associated budget allocations. In the committee’s view, the department should conduct socio-economic impact assessments and ‘enterprise analyses’ to determine the efficacy of its various ‘post-settlement’ support programmes in improving the ‘viability’ and productivity of redistributed farms and the ‘livelihood’ of affected beneficiaries. Special attention should be paid to projects falling under the programme for strengthening the relative rights of people working the land (‘50/50’), the recapitalisation and development programme and the agri-parks programme, as well as related ‘strategic partnership and mentorship’ initiatives.

Interestingly, according to the report the ‘next phase’ of government’s national land audit will ‘unpack’ the ownership of land held by ‘trusts and companies’. The committee would like to see this completed by the end of the financial year. The report also requests feedback from the department on progress in ‘transferring’ to the Presidency unspecified administrative responsibilities stemming from the 2013 Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act. This is noting that the move is intended to ‘empower’ municipalities apparently struggling with ‘development planning’ and service delivery. Operational since 2015, among other things this framework Act seeks to address ‘past spatial and regulatory imbalances’ by providing for ‘inclusive, developmental, equitable and efficient spatial planning’ at each level of government.