/ 29 October 2008

Land reform: Dept ‘will not meet its mandate’

Tozi Gwanya, the Director General of Land Affairs, finally admitted to a parliamentary committee on Wednesday what everyone has covertly known for years — that his department is not going to come within a bull’s roar of achieving the target set by politicians for 30% of agricultural land to be in black hands by 2014.

He blamed the lack of money, as well as the lack of capacity within his department to fulfil the tasks set for it. Members of the joint budget committee, however, put it firmly down to the failings of his staff.

Giving evidence to the joint committee hearings on the Medium-Term Budget Policy statement delivered last week by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, Gwanya’s chief financial officer, Catherine Motsisi, said that over the three years of the medium-term expenditure framework, the baseline expenditure required is R10,7-billion more than is allocated.

”It is clear that the department will not meet its mandate of delivering 30% of white-owned land by 2014,” she said.

Even to fulfil its target for this year, the department asked for an additional R2,5-billion in the adjustment estimates tabled by Manuel last week. Land affairs did not get one cent of additional cash.

Restitution of land — a programme that was supposed to be complete by end December this year — would have taken R2,2-billion of the extra cash requested. As a result, Motsisi said, there is not enough money in the kitty to settle all the claims already approved by the minister.

”The implication of the declined amounts is huge on the finalisation of the restitution claims and the necessary support services required in the department,” she said.

Gwanya told MPs that he has been asked to hold off signing deeds of sale this month, because there will not be enough money to pay for the properties.

But the joint chair of the committee, Louisa Mabe, told Gwanya directly that the lack of funds is not the problem. ”The problem is capacity,” she said.

”What are you doing with the funds that you have? We give you money. You don’t spend the money.”

She told the committee: ”I don’t want to talk about whether the department has sufficient funds, but why they don’t meet their targets with the funds they have.”

Joan Fubbs, an African National Congress member of the committee, pointed out that the department did not spend donor money given for land reform. ”Money from the Danish embassy was handed back,” she said. — I-Net Bridge