President Thabo Mbeki’s reference to land reform in his State of the Nation address has provoked cautious optimism among lobbyists, who are hoping South Africa’s policy in this regard might finally be on track.
Ben Cousins, director of the University of the Western Cape’s Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, expressed some disappointment, saying Mbeki said ‘nothing newâ€. However, he said, the speech reflected a new urgency in government.
Land lobbyists were buoyed by the dismissal last year of the widely disliked land affairs director general, Glen Thomas. And at the ANC’s Polokwane conference dele-gates resolved to ‘save†rural agriculture and focus more on the needs of subsistence farmers.
The department of land affairs has tabled new plans and policies, including a plan for post-settlement support designed to help land claimants make a living from their land. Cousins described this as the most important policy shift since 1994.
Mbeki highlighted four issues the government would ‘pay special attention to during this yearâ€: a Land Use Management Bill, restitution, post-settlement support and a rural development programme. But Cousins was cautious. ‘At the moment these are just plans on paper. While that is encouraging, the jury is still out on implementation,†he said.
‘The ANC new guard definitely has greater passion for land. Even more than the demise of Glen Thomas, the political pressure from them is a big driver.â€
Land analyst Edward Lahiff agreed that expectations had been raised of a dramatic increase in land delivery in the year ahead. He said the department had sharply increased its annual target for land transfer but still seemed unsure about whether it was supposed to use land distribution to promote black commercial farming or provide smaller plots for household food production.
‘It remains to be seen if the systems are in place in the national and provincial agriculture departments. These institutions are still falling far behind expectations in terms of both land transfer and support for land reform beneficiaries,†said Lahiff.
The president said the restitution programme — designed to restore land to those deprived of it under past discriminatory laws — would reach its final deadline next month and had to be rounded off.
However, the Mail & Guardian understands that claims will be gazetted, rather than settled, by the end of March. Acting land affairs director general Tozi Gwanya estimated at the end of last year that R15-billion was needed to settle all the claims.
But even gazetting by end-March might prove a bridge too far, with critics underscoring the Land Restitution Commission’s weak capacity and the time taken for validation processes.
‘The minister [Lulana Xingwana] and the chief land claims commissioner have committed themselves to meeting the deadline, but concede that complex claims might take longer,†said Lahiff. ‘A considerable number of large community claims to privately owned agricultural land are outstanding and settlement of these might require wider use of expropriation.â€
One of the most serious criticisms of the government’s land reform programme relates to the lack of state support for new farmers.
Next week in Pretoria the government will launch its ‘settlement and implementation support strategy†for land reform beneficiaries.
Xingwana’s spokesperson, Godfrey Mdhluli, said the strategy was designed to deal with beneficiaries’ lack of skills and resources.
Cousins said the capacity of the department would be tested in the next year and that departmental vacancies were a real worry. ‘You have to ask whether South Africa has the capacity to be the developmental state that the new land policies envision,†he said.