The government will be hard pressed to meet its land restitution deadline of 2005 with the Cinderella budget Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel awarded to the Department of Land Affairs, a land reform expert told the Mail & Guardian.
Ruth Hall, from the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the Western Cape, called the allocation disappointing.
“Increases in the national budget,” she said, “while modest, far outstrip the operating budgets for the Department of Land Affairs and the Land Claims Commission.”
In the past, the combined budgets for redistribution and restitution have added up to 0,4% of the total budget. Though the allocation has increased this year, it is still less than 1% of the total budget.
The department of land affairs spends what it gets — 98% of its budget this year, with 79% going to land reform.
The department has to distribute a third of the country’s white-owned land by 2015. More importantly it has to settle all restitution claims before the end of next year. At the moment it has finalised only 54%.
Hall said there is no sense of urgency evident in this year’s budget, despite clear indications that a five-fold increase in the pace of delivery is needed to meet government’s redistribution targets.
The minister allocated a total of R474-million to land redistribution and tenure reform, and R933-million to restitution. The total budget for land redistribution and restitution now amounts to R1,4-billion.
The land allocation shows small increases for both land redistribution (10%) and restitution (9%).
Hall said the small increment in the restitution budget bears no relation to the enormous task now faced by the commission.
“They have to settle the sizeable number of outstanding rural claims, which may be expected to cost, at the most conservative estimate, R10-billion,” she said.
Major investments in the institutions responsible for implementing restitution will also be needed if land reform is to succeed.
The allocation of funds available to purchase land for redistribution has dipped substantially in recent years, and is still lower than 2000/01 levels.
“Meanwhile, delivery has increased, resulting in bottlenecks where projects are approved, but land cannot be transferred due to a lack of funds — a situation that gives rise to frustration on the part of both beneficiaries and landowners waiting to sell,” Hall said.
“Many such projects are currently on hold in the Western Cape and Mpumalanga.”
Hall criticised the handling of security of tenure, which allows farm dwellers to receive land that they have occupied for a certain time, protecting them from eviction.
“While the budget refers to major changes to the tenure rights of farm dwellers, no explicit provision is made to finance such a programme.”
Tenure reform is due to be phased in until 2007, allowing for training and communication on the legislation’s content and setting up the land administration boards necessary to support the land administration committees.
Critics such as Agri South Africa have accused the government of dumping new farmers on their newly claimed land and expecting them to know how to farm. Manuel addressed this concern in the budget, allocating R750-million to a farmer support programme aimed at facilitating the entry of black emerging farmers into the agricultural economy.
Manuel announced that this new grant will be transferred over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework to provincial agricultural departments, adding that “comprehensive agricultural support to developing farmers is a priority for the government”.