Land reform: Is the government missing the point?

Since January, news items on the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform website have regularly featured two issues of considerable significance in the context of land restitution: farming equipment handed to rural communities and fraudulent land claims. While smallholder farmers have this month alone received implements and other ‘production support’ worth ‘millions of rands’, during the same period the department was obliged to allay concerns about illegal developments on state-owned land in Polokwane. There was an ‘unfortunate incident’ in the same area during February, when false reports of claims on land in Centurion also surfaced. While it is not clear what, if any, action has since been taken, expectations have been raised that may well be unrealistic. Can they be managed, asks Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. 

Given the poor state of most farms returned to the descendants of their pre-colonial occupants, perhaps media statements on equipment and support provided to emerging black farmers should focus less on rand value and more on effective use, maintenance and potential returns. Since his post-ANC national executive committee speech last July announcing a dramatic policy shift, President Cyril Ramaphosa has repeatedly assured South Africans and the international community that escalated land reform will not impact negatively on food security. Yet reports on recent ‘hand-overs’ are worryingly superficial. Last Friday, when a ‘production support unit’ was launched in the Harrismith area as part of a ‘stimulus package’ apparently valued at ‘over R50m’, one beneficiary observed that the new machinery will make it ‘easy to farm’ and feed his family. Hopefully, it will accomplish a great deal more than that.

Follow Pam Saxby on Twitter (@SaxbyPam)