Although land reform, including restitution, received an additional R2,6-billion this year to reach a new high of R6,6-billion, the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs got a dressing down from Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. At a press conference after the budget speech, Manuel questioned whether the department would be able to handle more funds.
In the past, land affairs was granted what has been described as a “Cinderella” budget by Treasury. But the Budget Review has promised more money for land affairs, although critics said it was still not nearly enough to deal with land reform in South Africa.
Land analysts Ruth Hall and Edward Lahiff said this year’s land affairs budget would perpetuate the chronic mismatch between the department’s ambitious goals and its institutional capacity and resources.
“There is no sign that these long-standing problems of institutional capacity will be addressed this year. At the same time, there is more money to spend,” said Hall. “The question is: Who will spend it? This is most surprising in view of the new and invigorated vision for rural development and agrarian reform adopted at Polokwane in December.”
Yet, for the second year in a row, the budget for land reform (to fund acquisition of land for redistribution, and for tenure reform) has jumped to new highs.
“This suggests that the state itself is planning to become a bigger player in the land market, while the funds for land applicants are rising much more slowly,” Lahiff said, adding that this is risky because no one knows whether the beneficiaries will be emerging black entrepreneurs or the rural poor.
Restitution has again lost out on the necessary budget to finalise claims. “It has not got the windfall requested by the commission — instructed to finalise claims this year — which is widely acknowledged to be totally unfeasible,” Hall said.
At the moment, there are just more than 5Â 000 restitution claims outstanding. At the end of last year, acting land affairs director general Tozi Gwanya estimated that R15-billion would be needed to settle all the claims, but restitution has been allocated just more than R3-billion.
“Instead, what is likely now is that many claims will be gazetted this year and most of these will be settled and the agreements implemented over the coming decade or more. The budget confirms that restitution remains a long-term process,” said Hall.
Post-settlement support is certainly the flavour of the month in land circles, with Gwanya this week admitting at the launch of the government’s new “settlement and implementation support strategy” that more than 50% of new land-reform projects had failed.
In the spirit of this new path, Manuel allocated considerable resources for skills development among new farmers. Agricultural extension services received an additional R500-million.
The M&G Online budget special report is brought to you by the