The government should measure the success of its land reform process on whether productivity of the land is maintained after a change in ownership, the Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday.
Speaking during the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs Budget debate, DA MP Kraai van Niekerk claimed that the present reform projects have left a trail of failures.
”We do want land reform to succeed. However, it is not only the transformation of ownership; it is also the sustainability of the agricultural activity, which supports the new owners, which is important.
”Hectares, only, are a misleading measure for land reform. The productive capacity of land should also be taken into account.”
Van Niekerk also urged Minister of Land Affairs and Agriculture Thoko Didiza to condemn plans by Zimbabwe to nationalise all land.
African Christian Democratic Party MP Kent Durr called for the reinstatement of aid to the drought-stricken areas in the Northern Cape, the south-western Cape and Swartland areas.
He said many drought-stricken areas and several categories of farming are now excluded from help.
”Our appeal is for an urgent further look at reinstating aid and including marginal excluded areas. Even the current volume of rain will not solve the problem for extensive farmers as grazing will take some time to develop.”
Pan-Africanist Congress leader Motsoko Pheko urged Didiza to amend the Constitution so that communities that lost their land before 1913 can also lodge claims.
Pheko also proposed the creation of a law that forbids the sale of land to foreigners.
”We should not sell our land while our own people live in filthy squatter camps and matchbox-size houses and have no land for farming, mining and fishing.”
He said the government’s principal of willing seller, willing buyer is a failure.
”The colonially dispossessed have no money to buy back their own land. The present government’s land policy will never resolve the land question in this country.” — Sapa