Restored land must translate to sustainable development.
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The success in land reform must be measured by how these restored land parcels have benefitted people through jobs, skills and economic inclusion.
Unfortunately, South Africa is miles away from realising this, says Peter Setou, the chief executive of the Vumelana Advisory Fund.
He says giving the community land without providing post-settlement support is tantamount to setting them up for failure.
“Post-settlement support includes interventions such as access to finance and markets, skills development and transfer through a mentorship programme, clear water usage rights at the point of transfer, including other forms of technical support,” says Setou.
The non-profit organisation that works with land reform beneficiaries to help them put their land into productive use says, in addition to this, beneficiaries must be supported to ensure that there is good governance and sound administration in place.
It says this is key in building public trust and social cohesion within communities.
“Both communities and prospective investors would like to get an assurance that restored assets are managed responsibly, ethically and in a transparent manner.”
On Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa officiated the handing over of title deeds for a total of 18 000 hectares of land to approximately 2 800 beneficiaries covered under four claims.
The Lawrence family and the communities of St Paul, Ngunjini and Ndzimankulu-Vierkant are handed back their land in Umzimkhulu in the KwaZulu-Natal Province.
Five hundred and seventy-one female-headed households across the four claims became owners of their ancestral land.
Speaking at the event, Ramaphosa said restored land must translate to sustainable development. He said it must be a vehicle for upliftment, for poverty alleviation and for job creation.
“We call on the Communal Property Associations to use the financial benefits from this land restitution to develop their communities and to ensure that this prosperity is shared by all.”
The president said the handover of these title deeds on the eve of Human Rights Day was a reminder that achieving freedom was about far more than rights on paper and remains about advancing human dignity and building an economy and society that benefits all.
Since 1994, Ramaphosa said the government worked hard to reverse the painful legacy of land dispossession under colonialism and apartheid.
He said they have done this by working within the rule of law to ensure continued productivity of the land, while speeding up the process of redress for those affected.
“To date, the government has settled approximately 16 900 land claims across this province, KwaZulu-Natal.
“Within the Harry Gwala District alone, we have invested more than R376 million for land acquisition, financial compensation and development grants for communities that have been restituted.”
The president says the government’s land reform programme is designed to ensure that land restitution yields tangible benefits not just for communities but for the country’s economy.
“As such, we continue to incentivise agricultural production and investments back into productive land.
“We continue to strike a balance between the need to accelerate transformation in the agricultural sector and ensuring that we remain a food secure country.”
He says the land reform process must help in addressing the challenges the country continues to confront: low growth, high unemployment, poverty and inequality.
“Land reform is essentially aimed at growing the pool of commercial farmers and, at the same time, creating jobs and growing the economy. We want to ensure that the rural economy remains vibrant and inclusive.”
Vumelana says that the state and key stakeholders must commit to providing other forms of support, including training and mentorship.
It added that the country further needs to urgently provide tenure security to communal farmers and investigate better ways of financing land reform, including ensuring that new farmers are not saddled with unsustainable debt.
Demand on public resources continues to exceed available resources, and this will not change now, says Setou. He says all restrictions on affordable finance, particularly for people in rural areas, must be attended to as a matter of urgency.
“Without all these important ingredients, it is difficult to see how rural economies and land reform can be strengthened to drive meaningful economic and social change.”
The organisation says that if the country is to achieve sustainable land reform, the government should dedicate funding to institutional support. It says the country does not need to reinvent the wheel, but should provide funding support to players who are already involved in this work and have an impeccable track record.
“Project funding remains a key concern. We need to harness the private sector and support partnerships between them and land reform beneficiaries.”
Promoting partnerships is the quickest way to get the private sector involved in funding land reform projects, says Setou.
“These partnerships must be independently facilitated to ensure objectivity and credibility. Government should fund entities that have been involved in and have a track record in facilitating partnerships.”
Earlier this week, Wandile Sihlobo, the Presidential envoy on Agriculture and Land, said the government has acquired some 2.5 million hectares of land under the PLAS program.
However, he says that, still, it has not transferred much of it to beneficiaries with title deeds for commercial farming.
“More land will need to be distributed, over time, mainly to young people and women, for agricultural development in our country. The government wants to see commercial productivity on any land acquired and distributed by the state,” Sihlobo said.
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