Report of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs, having conducted public hearings on 'the Pace of Land Reform in South Africa' on 18 - 20 October 2004, reports as follows:

Introduction

At present, the central thrust of land policy is the land reform programme. This programme had three elements; that was, redistribution, land restitution and land tenure reform.

Firstly, the land redistribution programme aims to provide the disadvantaged and the poor with access to land for residential and productive purposes. This segment of the population included the urban and rural poor, labour tenants, farm workers as well as new entrants to agriculture.

Secondly, land restitution covers cases of forced removals, which took place after 1913. The cases were dealt with by the Land Claims Court and the Restitution Commission established in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights Act, 22 of 1994.

Thirdly, land tenure reform is done through a review of the present land policy, administration and legislation to improve the tenure security of all South Africans and to accommodate diverse forms of land tenure including communal tenure.

The Portfolio Committee decided to conduct public hearings so that different view- points from various stakeholders could be obtained, due to the escalating national debate on the pace of land reform. The Committee received a total of 61 written submissions of which 34 stakeholders appeared before the Committee for oral presentations.

1. Ms AT Didiza, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs

During the early years of South Africa's freedom there were no international benchmark to compare the land reform programme of South Africa with. This made it difficult to have a clear analysis of whether or not South Africa's pace was slow or fast. The land reform programme was thus measured against what is wished for and how the government met the challenges that the people faced.

There were no concrete measures put in place to meet the reconstruction and development programme goal of a 30% redistribution of agricultural land. The Interim Constitution of 1993 provided a framework for land reform, but the land policy was only adopted in 1996, with the first legislation to effect redistribution adopted in 1995.

A number of institutions such as the Land and Agricultural Policy Centre relied on the expertise of individual, civil society structures and academic institutions abroad. Even though international governments and donor agencies gave technical and financial support to the land reform process, few of these resources, if any went to capital expenditure or land acquisition. As the process of land claims registration unfolded, gaps in the legislation framework came to the fore, which led to amendments of the Restitution Act, Labour Tenancy Act and Extension of Security Act. The Communal Land Right Act was enacted to provide the framework for the transformation of rural South Africa.

A better working relationship was needed with the Housing and Agriculture departments so that land reform beneficiaries could receive advice on structures and agricultural development. A better working relationship was also needed with the private sector, which provided finances and developmental advice, e.g. Khula Credit Guarantee Scheme.

The three pillars of the land reform programme should have been applied in an integrated fashion, because land redistribution were not isolated from tenure reform, e.g. the upgrading of tenure in a number of peri-urban environments had to be done.

Consultations were crucial for stakeholders to provide inputs, e.g. after the National Land Consultative Conference in December 2001, an increase in the pace of delivery in land reform was evident. The need for a National Land Summit was expressed to assess what progress had been made and whether or not the policies and legislation were adequate to enable us to conclude this important task. Local forums that included farmers, workers, community representatives and the municipality could assist in finding local solutions for local problems, which could be fed into the national system through a national land summit.

2. Transkei Land Service Organization (Tralso)

Since 1994 TRALSO had assisted about 500 rural communities to lodge land restitution claims with the Eastern Cape Regional Land Claims Commission.. Whilst it was presented with many restitutionary options in terms of the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994 (as amended), the Commission had since 2000 leaned rather heavily on monetary compensation towards urban claimants. Consequently, very little land had exchanged hands between white and black people as a result of the land restitution programme in the Eastern Cape. TRALSO viewed this as an issue fraught with considerable political and economic implications.

Whilst TRALSO acknowledged the co-operation of the government in respect of at least entertaining the issue, the communities remain appalled by the lack of a clear commitment and direction especially in light of the stipulated 2005 deadline on the restitution programme.

TRALSO and the communities developed the perception that municipalities failed to creatively accommodate the land needs/claims of their constituents within their IDP planning framework. The Department of Agriculture, nationally and provincially, seemed to be locked in its old apartheid mould despite the evolution of such programmes as the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP). The Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Strategy was a laudable conception that transcended the paper on which it was written.

Properties had not been (or were not being) sold at market value due to mismanagement and vandalism at the hands of former lessees. The department of Land Affairs (DLA) implemented a valuation procedure that reflected reduced values.

3. Agricultural Business Consultancy (ABC)

ABC was involved in both White commercial farming and emerging farmers. The farming community (almost all white) had been sidelined from the whole black economic empowerment (BEE) initiatives to a large degree. The focus of BEE should also be on exports and incentives to acquire idle land and turn it into economically viable growing businesses. The agriculture sector was expected to deliver much around Land Reform but it was not accorded high priority. The current funding systems that were in place were not in line with commercial reality and the available amounts were not sufficient to purchase and re-distribute land.

Government needed to find and align itself with the forward thinking farmers of this country and focus on the positive aspects of agriculture and communicate this to the people both at grassroots and at BEE corporate level.

The most suitable vehicle to deliver grassroots change to the people was agriculture but there was no vibrant expanding black owned commercial sector, which could create jobs for the masses. The focus must be on exports and incentives to acquire idle land and turn it into economically viable growing businesses.

The financial institutions, while supposedly making funds available have onerous security and related requirements which prevented emerging farmers to be obtain finance. ABC were of the opinion that these institutions were not serious about fulfilling there obligations to BEE and the result was that little or no progress were made in acquiring land for staff and communities.

The estimated value of agricultural land was approximately R 90bn and for the target of 30% Black owned land to be reached, about R 30 billion would be needed over the next ten years. The current budget from the Dept. of Land Affairs was nowhere close to being adequate.

4. Nkuzi Development Association

Nkuzi was an NGO working on all aspects of the land reform programme primarily in Limpopo Province and Gauteng.

The government's land reform programme had always aimed to improve the lives of the poor and contribute to economic development; the beneficiaries of land reform were just as keen to experience these benefits. Ensuring effective use of land and broader economic and community development were not extras, but fundamental parts of land reform and have to be part of our thinking when we tackle the question of the pace of land reform.

5. Inkezo Land Company

Inkezo was a Section 12 Company established by the Sugar Industry. There was a need for a dedicated Government funding, because the donor environment was restructuring itself. As a result some donors were moving out of land reform to focus on Aids, human rights, etc. Training and mentorship support were needed, but unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy were experienced. There was a lack of co-ordination and insufficient funding. Ability of the willing buyer to raise finance was also problematic. There was a need for researching different models of land reform.

6. South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)

The SAHRC supported and echoed the call from the many landless people that the pace of land reform was too slow. At the same time, the SAHRC recognised within a human rights framework that there had been progressive realisation of the poverty rights contained in the constitution that seeked to redress the imbalances of the past. The denial of access to land to the majority of the country's citizens during apartheid was one of the greatest challenges that our young democracy faced.

7. Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS)

PLAAS, which was based at the University of the Western Cape, had been involved with research, teaching and policy analysis in the area of land reform and related fields, both in South Africa and throughout the Southern African region.

The pace of land reform in South Africa was unacceptably slow and urgent steps should be taken to improve both the pace and the quality of land reform.

The reasons for the slow pace were complex, but include the following:
inappropriate or poorly-designed policies, most notably the market-based
approach;
inappropriate project designs, that undermined the sustainability of land
reform projects and the ability of poor rural people to gain a livelihood;
limited capacity within state agencies, including Department of Land Affairs,
the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, provincial Departments of
Agriculture and local government;
limited resources, for land purchase and for post-settlement supported;
lack of a holistic strategy for land reform and rural development at local or
national levels.

The slow pace of land reform manifested itself in the limited transfer of land to date - approximately 2.9% of former 'white' agricultural land transferred by February 2004 - but also in less-publicised issues such as ongoing evictions from commercial farms and lack of progress in many land reform projects (including settled restitution cases). While land reform had achieved some notable successes, these were overshadowed by the scale of the task that remains.

PLAAS believed that many issues within the land reform programme required urgent review, and deserved the attention of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs of the National Assembly. Four broad issues should be prioritized; namely the method of land acquisition, post-settlement support, the needs of farm dwellers, and budgetary requirements.

7.1 Method of Land Acquisition

The current market-based approach policy was not specifically mandated by the Constitution, which allowed room for non-market approaches.

The market-based approach had a number of major implications for the land reform programme:
it precluded a systematic, planned approach to meet land needs e.g.; land acquisition was piecemeal, as individual farms came up for sale;
it militated against long-term and proactive planning by state bodies for the
provision of infrastructure and support services to land reform beneficiaries;
the willingness of the state to pay 'market ' prices ensured that land reform remained expensive, and there was widespread perception that landowners were exploiting this willingness in order to obtain exorbitant prices.

Acquisition of land through the open market proved to be slow, and offers no assurances that the most appropriate land, in terms of quality and location, will be acquired, at an affordable price or at the required scale. To address these concerns, it was essential that the state adopted a systematic and proactive approach to land acquisition, in close partnership with the landless.

This would require the following:
Systematic assessment of all land needs per area, to include demands for restitution, redistribution and tenure reform;
Identification of suitable land and matching this to identified demand;
Negotiations with landowners to release suitable land, on the scale required and at an affordable price; and
The use of expropriation where negotiations did not yield results.

7.2 Needs of Farm Dwellers

Despite a landmark ruling by the Land Claims Court that recognised farm dwellers' right to legal representation at the state's expense, farm dwellers continue to face eviction proceedings without the support of an attorney. The high rate of evictions of farm dwellers from their homes left families destitute, often in informal settlements without any means of support.

The high rate of evictions could be attributed to a number of factors, such as,
Weaknesses in the legislation;
Ignorance of the law on the part of farm dwellers and inability to exercise
their rights;
Lack of monitoring or intervention by relevant government departments;
Unlawful activity and coercion by many land owners; and
Lack of support from police, magistrates and prosecutors for farm dwellers
facing eviction.

8. Ndima Community Services

The Freedom Charter expressed the commonly accepted principle succinctly: The land belongs to those who work it!

The Ndima commented on the pace of land reform in South Africa, because this appearance was deceptive. Critical appreciation of the pace of land reform in South Africa today required attention to logic, language and law. Although there was some common ground, the land question and its issue really did mean different things to different people, especially rival claimants to the land.

Justice would be done to the Ndima comments on the pace of land reform in South Africa if it could be presented within the oral tradition by community land claimants themselves. It was only through such a presentation that the community's comments on the pace of land reform in South Africa could be heard in all its subtlety, directness, honesty, articulateness and integrity.

Perhaps it would turn out to be ironic that public hearings in Parliament under the auspices of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs would effectively exclude presentations by the most marginalized members of the public, who still live, work and play within the oral tradition of human discourse. The grounds for such exclusion would be logistical. However, critical scrutiny of the processes of communication might actually prove otherwise.

9. Die Gereformeerde Kerk

The Gereformeerde Kerke van Suid-Afrika was convinced that the church of Jesus Christ had a calling with regard to land reforms in South Africa. Churches must give prophetic witness and engage in the process of land reforms in co-operation with other key stakeholders. The church could play, where necessary, an important reconciliatory and facilitating role and could give pastoral assistance to those who were directly involved.

Motivation

1. The church was involved in the process of land reform, because as the Bible stated; "The earth and everything there upon, the world and those living in it, everything belongs to God" (Ps 24:1). In the Bible we read about the possession of land, sale of land, the need for fair distribution of land, the evil of land grabbings, the restitution of land, the right to property, etc. Land issues determined the basic existence of people and therefore the church could not afford to take a passive and ignorant stance with regard to the process.

Furthermore, the church possessed land, though on a small scale. According to 1996-statistics the Gereformeerde Kerke van Suid-Afrika owned 184 000 hectweres of land.

2. The lives and future of many people in this country were influenced in one way or another by land. If agriculture failed, it would have serious consequences for everyone. It was of utmost importance that the church should get involved in the process as an exemplary community of reconciliation.

3. As such the church was prepared to get involved in discussions with other stakeholders to ascertain the role that it could play in contributing to an orderly and responsible process of land reform. For instance, the church could contribute on the level of relations and attitudes and could play a facilitating and reconciliatory role in particular cases.

10. Surplus Peoples Project (SPP)

The SPP was an NGO that had been working with the poor and landless in the Northern and Western Cape for the past 19 years. SPP's core business was the facilitation of land reform and capacity building for engagement with land and agrarian reform. SPP supported the RDP target to transfer 30% of agricultural land to the poor black people in five years, as well as the White Paper on Land Policy (1997), which stated that the primary purpose of land reform in South Africa was to redress apartheid injustices.

Current data increasingly indicated that the government's land reform programme was very slow in meeting its own targets. The government had now shifted the deadline to 2015, which would further extend the land reform process. Underlying this reality was deepening poverty, market led approach to land reform, lack of political will, insufficient budget etc.

The impediments to land reform in South Africa (WC and NC) were;
Limited political will;
Inadequate budget for land and agrarian reform;
Willing buyer - willing seller approach;
Lack of post-settlement support;
Lack of access to water; and
Co-ordination between government departments & spheres;

11. Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE)

The TCOE was a collective of non-governmental organizations working on the rural development sector for over 20 years in Limpopo, Eastern Cape and Western Cape. The main activity of the organization was lobbying, advocacy and capacity building in the area of land and agrarian reform, local government and local economic development.

TCOE was instrumental in capacitating rural communities through its education projects with the aim of facilitating a debate on development issues at community level.

The key issues for consideration were:
Structural obstacles to land reform;
Lack of legislative and policy frameworks;
Administrative and Human Resource capacity of DLA;
Lack of political will;
Fragile and weak organisation of the rural poor; and
Alternatives needed


12. Land Access Movement of South Africa (LAMOSA)

LAMOSA stated the following problems:
Lack of political will or capacity;
Inadequate budgeting and spending;
Limited state involvement;
Farm dweller issues were not adequately addressed by the current policies;
Lack of cohesive post-settlement and development strategy on land, water and agriculture;
Policy formulation on HIV/Aids and land reform was exclusive, because there were no broad participatory processes; and
Need for a fundamental reassessment of the land reform programme - towards a Land and Rural Development Summit

13. Landless People's Movement (LPM)

In 2001, LPM was formed by leaders of various landless people of South Africa who believed that to organise themselves would assist in getting the land (and mineral rights) back that was stolen from them during the colonial and apartheid periods. The LPM included farm workers, labour tenants, restitution claimants, redistribution applicants and the rural poor living in informal settlements. The LPM was not aligned to any political party.

14. South African Council of Churches (SACC)

The SACC was the facilitating body for a fellowship of 26 Christian churches and associated para-church organisations, with a combined constituency of roughly 15 million members and adherents. SACC members were committed to expressing jointly, through proclamation and programmes, the united witness of the church in South Africa, especially in matters of national debate.

The SACC stood for the following key biblical principles:
Land was a gift from God, to be equitably shared for the benefit of all humanity;
Land was the 'locus of life'; it gave life and identity and fulfils a critical social function as the place where life was lived and celebrated;
Ownership of land was never absolute, because the social function of land was paramount;
Resistance to the propensity for commodification, accumulation and profit, which tended to exclude the poor and deny their rights in land;
The Jubilee tradition affirmed the redistributive nature of God's commitment to the poor, seeking to ensure just and equitable access to land and resources;
Human work on the land should express the dignity of human labour and the joy of participation and cooperation, because it was a privilege to be co-creators with God in the unfolding story of creation; and
Humans were stewards of the land, called to protect the integrity of God's creation for the benefit of future generations and to ensure that they did not strip the land of its fertility.

15. East Cape Agricultural Research Project (ECARP)

ECARP, which was formed 11 years ago, was a non-profit organisation based in Grahamstown that worked with farm workers and farm dwellers and other rural communities. ECARP dealt with the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD) and the Extension of Security of Tenure Act and had facilitated five LRAD projects and one restitution project. Through facilitation and interaction with these Acts, as well as through our research, ECARP had identified a major disjuncture between the conceptualisation and implementation of the new land policies and legislation.

ECARP uncovered problems with: (a) the pace of land reform and land redress, (b) the manner in which land reform was currently facilitated and (c) the serious lack of post-land-transfer supported to farmers. ECARP called for a critical review of the slow pace of land delivery and a critical evaluation of the role that government had played in the pre-and post-land-transfer phases.

ECARP also wanted to strengthen LRAD farmers through the provision of institutional
supported; appropriate methods for land use and farming; and infra-structural support for
farmers;

16. Constantia Land Claimants Beneficiaries (CLCB)

The CLCB Committee actively supported the Western Cape Regional Land Claims Commission (RLCC-WC) with its work, by amongst others:

Calling community meetings to keep the community informed of new developments with regard to the land restitution process.
Appeasing and motivating claimants when promises were made by representatives of the RLCC-WC and not kept.
Facing the wrath of the claimant community on behalf of the RLCC-WC, Committee members being slandered in community radio programmes, and being labeled as "lackeys" of the RLCC-WC.
Assisting the RLCC-WC with the collection, completion and submission of claims.
Assisting the RLCC-WC with tracing claimants who have moved house since the start of the process.
Offering to assist RLCC-WC in filing and the preparation of claims for research.
Spending three full days (6 persons) to document the contents of claimant folders and to record which documents were outstanding by individual claimants.
Doing archival and deeds searches at own expense.
Acquiring and providing the RLCC-WC with surveyor -general maps of
the greater Constantia area, which were then either misplaced or lost by theRLCC-WC.

The CLCB experienced the following problems:
Poor relationship with the RLCC-WC;
Infrastructural inefficiencies;
Lack of access to information and unbiased and unprejudiced guidance;
Claimants being encouraged to opt for financial compensation.

The CLCB agreed that;
the Constantia Land Claimants Committee must immediately provide the Department of Land Affairs with more information in order to draw the attention of the RLCC Western Cape,
Both the National Commissioner and the Regional Commissioner must attend to the problem immediately; and
Before the end of the last day of the hearings, the Department should provide the Committee with a written report about how the matter had been resolved.

17. Women's Legal Centre (WLC)

The WLC was a public interest law centre started by women to enable women to use the law in advancing and achieving their rights to equality, through litigation and advocacy.

The WLC litigated and gave advice on matters where security of tenure for women living under communal land had been threatened. In its client community women continued to live with domestic violence as a result of insecure tenure. Women often became victims of forced evictions when they got divorced or separated from their husbands. Sometimes this situation extended to women who had been widowed and to women living with HIV/AIDS. Discriminatory inheritance practices that served to disinherit women had been the subject of most recent litigations.

The WLC believed that South Africa still suffered from extreme levels of inequality. African women remained arguably the most marginalized and vulnerable group. The barometer of the pace of land reform for WLC was premised on whether the laws passed to date responded to these realities and whether the measures advanced have translated to benefits to this group of women.

18. South African Citizens Intelligence Agency (SACIA)

The desired pace of land depended entirely on how quickly it was intended to ruin the economy of South Africa, increase the number of people living in poverty, and cause starvation amongst the poor, resulting in South Africa becoming dependent on food handouts from generous foreign donors.

It was proven beyond reasonable doubt in all developed that extensive capital intensive farming methods using modern technology were far more productive than labour and land intensive low tech agricultural systems. It was called the Green Revolution and was the prime reason for countries like the USA being able to produce enough food for their own needs and to provide free food to so called hungry developing world.

A classic example was that Australia used extensive farming methods to produce three times more rice per hectare than Japan that used intensive farming systems. The price of Australian rice was also less than half of the Japanese rice. In the developed world this entailed people moving off the land and consolidating farms into large scale economically productive units that could produce three and four times more per hectare than the old small units that were unprofitable.

This was called economy of scale and was the same reason that large factories and mines were far more productive than smaller units.

19. Southern Cape Land Committee (SCLC)

SCLC was an NGO since 1987 working towards access to land and control over natural resources for sustainable livelihoods. Its primary focus was farm dwellers, emergent farmers and rural communities affected by the restructuring process.

The pace of land reform was indeed dismally slow with statistics indicating that less than 3% of the land changed hands in the past 10 years of democracy, despite the predicted 30%. Land ownership patterns remained skewed and poor rural people have limited access to land and natural resources for livelihoods.

19.1 The Causes of the slow pace of land reform were:
The mismatch between the land reform grants and the market related
price of land,
The growing emphasis on the market based economy,
A shift in local government, from delivery to cost recovery, giving power to
wealthy ratepayers and further marginalizing poor communities,
Privatization of forests, railways and coastlines cutting people off from
natural resources and plunging people into further poverty with few
opportunities to break the cycle,
Slow pace of restitution when it came to land restoration, and
Limited access to commonage.

19.2 The effects of the slow pace of land reform were:
Patterns of spatial apartheid development remain unchanged;
A growing divide between the rich and poor;
Insecure tenure and human rights abuse of farm dwellers;
Ongoing urbanization;
Less and less land available for land reform purposes; and
Long waiting lists for land reform

20. Diverse International Trade (DIT)

The land issue was critical to the creation of jobs, BEE, skills development and the entry of new players in the mainstream economy. Land reinforced the dimension of ownership, in turn, impacting on the importance of farmer's motivation for improving agricultural land use.

20.1 The variables that impacted on land reform were:
Agricultural properties of land (soil fertility, climate, environmental
conservation conditions),
Levels of knowledge, expertise and experience of beneficiaries/owners of
the land,
Market availability of possible local crops, and
Financial cover of capex/opex for crops or others on land.

20.2 Recommendations to the Committee
That options like organic agriculture should be strongly considered;
That each land reforms case be the subject of a project sustained by the
professional management of each project design; and
That the role players and stakeholders in the process have a framework of
co-operation and support towards the beneficiaries.

21. Women on Farm Project (Sikhula Sonke)

Women on Farms Project (WFP) worked with women farm workers in the Western Cape. Recently these women along with their male counterparts constituted a membership organization, Sikhula Sonke.

The major changes and challenges confronting land and agrarian reform in South Africa had a direct impact on the lives of farm workers and in particular on the lives of women farm workers. Sikhula Sonke and WFP would like to share these challenges with the members of the Portfolio Committee.

The lack of tenure security proved to be one of the most detrimental effects on the lives of the farm workers. Too many of the farm worker families had to endure farm evictions - both legal and illegal. These evictions happened when no alternative accommodation was provided for those affected by it. Evictions were often a result of the liquidation or the sale of farms. The role of local government needed to be clarified to ensure effective support and co-operation.

There were still many women who were assaulted and evicted from farms, without alternative accommodation. The violation of human rights was still ongoing as if there was no justice system in place.

21. Centre for Rural Legal Studies (CRLS)

CRLS was established in 1991 and was committed to the redistribution of resources in the rural areas of the Western Cape, Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape Provinces. Together with farm workers and their organizations focused on land and labour rights of farm workers, through our legal support to farm workers, rights education and training of farm workers, advice offices and trade unions. It also provided participatory research that informs legislation, policy and service delivery.

Land reform played a critical role in the process of transformation and restorative justice by returning people to the land that was took from them. Land reform also impacted significantly on improving the livelihoods of many rural South Africans. Accessing land provided a way out of poverty for large number of rural poor by providing them with a means of meeting basic food needs and boosting their incomes. Land reform alone could not eradicate the deep-rooted problems of rural poverty, inequality and underdevelopment, but it could, if combined with a comprehensive programme of economic investment and development, play a central role in the improvement of rural livelihoods. For these reasons, the current slow pace of land reform should not be allowed to persist unchallenged.

The possible causes of the slow pace of land reform included:
The market-based land reform approach;
The interests of investors, speculators, banks and financial houses;
The lack of resourced, responsive and integrated institutions;
A lack of political will and compassion;
An administrative and technocratic response that excluded people on the
ground;
Insufficient budget allocations for land reform; and
A bias towards restitution

23. National Land Committee (NLC)

The NLC was a network of organizations that provided support to communities resisting forced removals under the apartheid rule in the 1980s. In the early 1990s the NLC went on to play a central role in policy formulation and development for the new democratic dispensation.

Ten years into the new democracy the NLC had yet to see government's market driven land reform programmes alleviating rural poverty and transforming land ownership patterns. Neither the restitution nor redistribution programmes have led to any significant transfer of land to the dispossessed, while racially skewed land ownership patterns remained intact. The rural population were increasingly marginalized as poverty worsened, unemployment increased and job security became increasingly tenuous.

Enforcement of legislation was virtually absent and farm dwellers were evicted, assaulted and dismissed with impunity. Low wages, violence, human rights abuses and sexual harassment were the order of the day, while health, education, infrastructure, transport and electricity provision and other services were virtually absent. At the same time new forms of land uses for the leisure of the rich replaced traditional agricultural activities as potentially productive land were converted into game parks and golf estates. Large tracts of coastline were sold off to become private beaches and playground for the rich.

24. Agricultural Research Council-Range & Forage Institute (ARC-RFI)

This submission provided a case-study of Ngqushwa Municipality where the ARC-RFI conducted a wide range of research projects and development interventions in the agricultural and natural resource management sectors, showing that land reform remained an unfulfilled promise.

Since the mid-nineteenth century, land pressure had been a major issue in Peddie District, where previously white-owned freehold farms were interspersed between 'native locations' or 'reserves' that were established in the late 1830s. The effect had been one where freehold land was generally in good condition. Historically it enjoyed artificially low population densities, while adjacent 'locations' under communal tenure were seriously overcrowded and experience land-hunger, social exclusion and notable environmental deterioration along a number of indices. These included soil erosion, infestation by unpalatable plants and encroachment by woody biomass, for example, acacia karoo. Tensions, especially racial antagonisms and issues like stock-theft and the periodic expulsions of farmworkers, characterised the relationship between white freehold farmers and black residents of adjacent reserve locations.

The problems that were identified were:

Firstly, as was common knowledge, the land reform programme was about
redressing racially skewed land ownership and providing access to the
means of production for black farmers;
Secondly, there was a serious land shortage in the reserve areas; and
Thirdly, the process of unraveling land use and women ownership in the former Bantustans should be linked to broader developments in the local agrarian economy.

25. Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD)

Two thirds of the country, including most of the best quality land remained in the hands of less than 60 000 white owners, while fourteen million blacks eked out of a precarious existence in the former homelands and urban informal settlements. The three legs of the land reform programme: restitution, redistribution and tenure reform were set out in the 1997 white paper on land policy, with the first two being the main tools for handing land to the dispossessed and the landless.

Unlike Zimbabwe, South Africa had no Lancaster House Agreement, which obliged the former colonial power to provide funds for land reform. SA had a constitution that was even worse than Zimbabwe in that it offered the most iron-clad protection for private land rights ever seen in post independent Southern Africa. South African government chose to use its own financial resources to buy back land based on the "willing buyer- willing seller principle."

25.1 Debate over foreign landownership
Those who supported foreign land ownership pointed to the economic impact of such a trend on the tourism industry. Since most of the farms bought by foreigners have been converted into eco-tourism wonderlands, the country earned millions of dollars each year from foreign tourists looking for an exclusive African getaway at luxury lodges.

However, Zimbabwe's experience with rapid expansion of eco-tourism in the 1990s raised questions over whether all the dollars flowing into the lodges benefit the country or the communities around them. In South Africa, those who supported the development of sumptuous five-star luxury lodges pointed to "pockets of excellence" such as Game Reserves. While the creation of game lodges on prime cattle ranching land in Zimbabwe led to the perception that white landowners were more concerned about giving land to animals than helping to restore the resource to its rightful owners. The trend into "conservationism" on prime farmland was likely to generate similar, if not more controversy and anger. This was because the conversion of potentially good farmland into private games parks was taking place in areas already characterized by deep-rooted rural contestation over land ownership such as the Kwa-Zulu Natal South Coast; the Eastern Cape Wild Coast and the Western Cape Coast.

25.2 A legal regime and control was needed to enhance land reform, because
For a country with severe economic inequalities, control measures were
needed to prevent the internationalization of what was essentially a national,
that was the very basis of sovereignty - land ownership; and
To curb land speculation (already a serious problem in South Africa's land
reform process); and
Maintaining "investor confidence" should not be at the expense of social
justice which SA needed to guarantee future political stability. If such
controls were not put in place, South Africa ran the risk of walking the
troubled path such as Zimbabwe.

25.3 There were certain fallacies of the market paradigm, i.e.
A speedier process of land reform in South Africa would come to rest with the
debunking of the theoretical foundations of economic liberalism in general;
The theoretical basis of the market-based land reform framework was liberalist and suffered from at least three basic weaknesses particularly with respect to the situation in Southern Africa;
The first weakness sprung from the very assumption of the existence of competitive market forces in the land market in the region;
The second assumption was that market forces, where they exist, were capable of ensuring the optimal allocation of resources; and
The third assumption was the implicit suggestion that market forces have historically played a key role in bringing about the land problem faced in Southern Africa today; and
In Zimbabwe, the principle of willing buyer - willing seller proved to be a failure for over twenty years.

26. Agri-SA

The complexity and the sensitivity of land reform necessitated discussions and the sharing of information to improve the common understanding of the needs, expectations and concerns related to land reform as well as to what would be in the best interest of South Africa.

Agri-SA, as an organisation that promoted the viability of commercial agriculture served the interests of commercial producers of all sizes and races. Land reform affected participation in this industry, its structure, support services and possibly its output as well. It recognised the need for and support to the process of transformation in this industry. The reallocation of resources between participants was by necessity a part of this process.

25.1 Context
Agri-SA was satisfied with the basis that Section 25 of South Africa's constitution provided for the protection of property rights on the one hand, and for restoring rights as well as empowering the previously disadvantaged to gain access to the land market. Although Agri-SA had specific concerns about aspects of the Extension of Security of Tenure Act and the Restitution Act, these concerns did not have a direct impact on the pace of land reform as such.

Agri-SA wanted to put on record its appreciation for the willingness of the Minister and her deputy to consult with stakeholders on the statutory framework that guided land reform, as well as on issues of implementation that might expedite the process. The same appreciation should be noted for the open door approach of the Land Claims Commissioner.

25.2 The problem areas and possible solutions were:
Defining the demand for land and managing expectations,
Administrative capacity,
Overlapping claims,
Publishing of information,
Valuation of land,
Commercial viability of Land for Labour Tenants,
Consultation forums,
Availability of land, and
Funding

27. National African Farmer's Union of South Africa (NAFU)

The following key issues were raised:
Agricultural training for black farmers must be focused by providing competence in production environment as well as creating a competency to understand and interact with the full agricultural value chain;
There was no structured approach to gathering information about small scale tillers of the land to define the impact on the food situation in the country;
Land ownership patterns made it difficult to acquire land;
The lack of access to financial support;
Communication infrastructure was one of the neglected issues that needs to be attended to;
Criminal violence in rural areas;
Black Economic Empowerment in full agricultural value chain

28. South African Communist Party (SACP)

Land reform was the form of the broader land and agrarian question which in South Africa was shaped by four factors, first the history of conquest and dispossession; secondly the exploitation of land and people through successive systems of labour coercion; thirdly the development and entrenchment of a particular model of land ownership and utilization patterns; and fourthly, protectionism and direct investment by the state, the white male-dominated commercial agricultural sector.

28.1 The reasons for slow pace of land reform were:

The market- based land reform meant that the interests of the historically disposed were postponed in favour of the interest of current landowners. This approach meant that the state was obliged to pay existing owners prevailing market prices for land, and that (with few exceptions) current owners were not obliged to sell;
The budgets provided for land reform grew since 1994, but still remained inadequate relative to the price of land and the millions of people who remained landless or in need of land;
Land reform was also hampered by the absence of a proactive and activist state led approach to land acquisition; and
Another major weakness remained the absence of an active state-led industrial strategy for the agricultural sector, which would create a single state-led sustainable economic development and poverty eradication growth path. The integrated rural development strategy fell short of such a strategy.

28.2 Land reform was based on the following national priorities:

The co-operation of all stakeholders, including current land owners;
Accelerated state acquisition of land for redistribution at prices set by the state through, among other measures, the increased use of expropriation as a method for land acquisition and the need for the state to have the right of first refusal for private land transactions;
Provision of unused land by absentee landlords, big farmers, national and provincial governments, municipalities, churches and parastatals;
Land tax for unused land linked to expropriation of unused land;
Increased budget allocations to ensure adequate financial resources for land and agrarian reform; and
Access to resources, equipment, long-term post-settlement support and credit.

29. Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS)

CALS was a research institute attached to the School of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand. CALS engaged in research, advocacy, litigation and training in a wide range of areas relating to human rights and the law. In particular, CALS had research programmes that specialised in land law, customary law, labour, Aids, the Constitution and human rights discourse and gender and the law.

The Land Rights Research Programme (LRRP) was a project of CALS which focused on land issues with the view to improve tenure security, facilitate for land access and acquisition by empowering communities on their land rights as provided for by the land reform laws.
The work of the LRRP contributed towards initiating and supporting tenure security reforms, access to land and constitutional empowerment of communities. It also intervened using its research information in policies at national, provincial and local levels

29.1 Analysis of the Problem
ÿ There was a lack of capacity to implement land reform legislations inter alia, the Communal Property Associations Act. On the other hand, the fact that many rural communities lacked access to education and facilities rendered their participation ineffective;
ÿ Though some notable successes had been made in assisting communities to attain tenure security and other developments, the processes were slow and protracted;
ÿ Due to obstacles in working with communal property associations in rural communities, communities did not benefit from the support of government, organizations such as trade unions and churches on sustained basis;
ÿ This situation had been exacerbated over the past years and now, by a discernible contraction of the public space for discussion of the government's land reform policy, where discussion documents were made public on short notice periods which rendered informed responses by communities practically impossible;
ÿ The legal institutions established through the land reform programme were and still were not usable as surety to access finance. The legal entities should provide its beneficiary members with a title that would enable individual rights holder use their title as a collateral;
The fact that communal property (land) was owned by a group or community, meant that pressure on individual's rights remain unavoidable. Individual members would again not share common ideas, ambition and commitment on what activity needs to be carried on land for self-economic advancement.
The challenge also was about how service institutions can be made more accessible. It was understandable that separate police stations, courts, hospital clinics could not be built for small settlement areas.

30. Deciduous Fruit Producer's Trust (DFPT)

The producers of Deciduous Fruit pledged to assist and support the transfer of 30% of deciduous farm land to historically disadvantaged individuals (HDI's) and communities. This was a daunting challenge, which was made even more daunting by environmental factors, such as the lack of finance and the lack of information.

30.1 Lack of Finance

Deciduous fruit farming, unlike many other types of farming was a long-term investment and a highly capital intensive type of farming with very low returns. Farms cost anything from R80,000 to R100,000 per hectare to establish. A farm needed to have a minimum percentage of fruit bearing hectares in full production to be economically viable. A farm could cost anything between R1,5 million and R20 million. With the governments grant system, many people were benefiting, but this was a recipe for disaster, as people were from different cultural backgrounds and had varying levels of business sense, if at all. Their investment realised very little if there were no economic returns. The question was: Should 80% of the people be on the land or should 80% of the land be for the people.

Innovative solutions needed to be found, however, everybody, including state organs were interested only in the profit motive. A solution could be where interest payments were deferred or spread over a longer pay back period. Finance or the lack thereof remained the greatest obstacle in the transfer of land in South Africa, which lead to another obstacle, the fair value price of land. The very principle of willing buyer - willing seller, rested on the premise of fair value. In the interest of fairness, a land valuers office or an industry body could set the fair value price.

Currently farmers were selling their land predominantly to workers who qualify for LRAD funds. They determined who qualified and on that basis determined the price that had to be paid. There was also the question of a price for HDI's and a price for current commercial farmers. A land valuers office would eradicate all of the above as this was the price government would be prepared to pay. Exploitation would not occur.

30.2 Lack of information
There was no information on the amount of land that was transferred through the commercial process, due to confidentiality clauses. The Agricultural Research Council (ARC) did not provide such information to those outside the transaction, even though the industry spent more than R10 million a year on research with the ARC. Banks were also reluctant to give information regarding the transfer of land. This information would assist greatly in the strategies adopted and give a clear picture on land reform. This should be public knowledge, so that all citizens could keep track of the scoreboard.

31. Association for Rural Advancement (AFRA)

AFRA was an independent land rights NGO that aimed to redress past injustices, to secure tenure for all, and to improve the quality of life and livelihoods of the rural poor. It worked with black rural people in KwaZulu-Natal whose land and development rights had been undermined, whose tenure was insecure and who did not have sufficient access to land and resources to fulfil their developmental aspirations or basic needs.

AFRA's concern was the market driven approach, the application of Integrated Sustainable Development; and Restitution.

32. National House of Traditional Leaders

It became apparent from the rural people that the 1998 deadline was not communicated properly, hence some legitimate claims were not lodged. Another restraining factor in this matter was the use of English as the only communicable language, thereby excluding what might be the beneficiaries out of the required knowledge.

It was therefore submitted that the 1998 deadline be revisited with the aim of extension so as to attend to the realities. The notion of land delivery should not be utopian, but real, hence the justification for speeding up of land delivery in the traditional areas.

Compensation was wrong if it was for the sole purpose of denying the rightful people their fundamental right to resettle in the land of their ancestors.

The National House of Traditional Leaders called on the Ministry of Land Affairs to fast-track the processes of land redistribution as the question of the 87% land in the hands of white population was still a matter of grave concern and if left unattended, would be tantamount to disservice to the populace of this country.

33. Human Science Research Council (HSRC)

The key concerns of the HSRC were:

The pace of land reform should not be regarded as the primary indicator of success.
Official attempts to meet unrealistic national targets, in particular the deadline for settling all restitution claims by the end of 2005, were compromising the quality and long-term sustainability of many land reform projects.
Poor rural women were particularly disadvantaged when the speed at which overall targets were met took precedence over attention to quality in project implementation and project outcomes.
The quality of national land reform data and monitoring and evaluation systems were generally poor; hence the available statistics were unreliable for measuring both progress towards national targets and the contribution that land reform was making to poverty reduction and sustainable development.

34. Dr HJ de Bruyn

34.1 Commercial Farming:
All commercial farms should be retained as commercial units. Prospective farmers should be trained on a BEE program at farming colleges and allowed access to land through Landbank loans. An incentive scheme should be created for qualified farmers to assist in the first three years of a BEE farmers actual farming. BEE should be allowed for a maximum of 5 years, whereafter no more racial discrimination should exist. All new prospective farmers should be allowed equal access to farming assistance measures after this period.

34.2 Subsistence Farming:

This was a model that should receive urgent attention in the former homelands. These areas should be divided into economically viable small farms in collaboration with Traditional Leaders. The occupants of this land should receive title and full ownership to this land. Large farming companies should be allowed to buy these farms on a willing buyer/seller basis. This would lead to the rapid development of these high potential areas with a much higher rainfall than most of the rest of the country. Job creation would also be stimulated. The global trend in farming was that farming operations were getting larger and were more and more being run by companies.

34.3 Corporate Farming:
With this model rapid progress could be made with BEE. This entity could also be utilised to train prospective commercial farmers and incentives for this should be increased. Shareholding should make empowerment easier. Medical services and education could be provided.

34.4 Restitution Process:
The current process of restitution should be carried through and the above factors should be borne in mind when new settlers were settled on farms. One of the strong sentiments among farmers was that agricultural land should be used for agriculture and not the mere disorganised settlement of people who had no passion for farming. The lawful and disciplined manner in which claims had been handled until now was not negotiable and should be upheld by government, even if it lead to a bit of dissatisfaction at grass roots level. This could earn government a lot of credibility and respect, locally and abroad, which on its turn could lead to increased investment in this sector.


35. Centre for Land and Natural Resource Policy (SA)

The slow pace of land reform in South Africa was largely due to the threefold tenure system, which meant that people had to find cash to purchase land. This made land unaffordable to the poor unless subsidies were provided by the State. Land prices played a big part in the economic life of a country. In Japan these prices rose seven times faster than wages for the thirty-five year period ending in 1988. In South Africa there was no such statistics but land prices should follow that trend, because people flock to free land in townships on the city fringes only to live a hand to mouth existence there.

The way to speed up land reform was to make land affordable by re-introducing traditional, that was, rental type tenures. These replace purchase prices with monthly user charges. This idea was used to reform land law in Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong. The object was to return the tiller to the soil. The result was that employment was boosted in these countries in both the formal and informal sectors and in the towns and country. The land rents which were raised for the State reduced conventional taxes on wages, savings and trade. This was accepted by the landlords as part of their compensation for loss of title. Land reform was therefore reliant on tax reform.

36. Australian Certified Investment Planner (ACIP)

The issues here were two fold:
36.1 Firtsly, the state wanted to transfer the land to a CPA that was controlled by the council. This was the transfer of land from one organ of state to another, which was not even remotely within the policy of empowering the beneficiaries to sustainable development through land reform.

36.2 Secondly, it comprised a gross violation of the democratic process (since that had resulted in a vote for ownership outside the state's structures) as well as a gross violation of the fundamental right to freedom of association.

37. GaMawela Land Claims Committee

The GaMawela Community successfully claimed back their land, the farm St George known to as GaMawela in the Lydenburg district. On 4 June 2004 the Land Claims Court ordered that the land be given back, subject to the mining rights held by Rustenburg Platinum Mines (RPM) owned by Anglo Platinum (Angloplats). The Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, at national level, and the Department of Land Affairs supported the claim, but because the landowners and later RPM were determined that the community would not succeed in returning to the land. They were forced to go the courts, with the assistance of the Legal Resources Centre. GaMawela was ancestral land from which they were evicted in 1958. Many of graves and remainders of the homesteads were still to be found on GaMawela, as well as sacred pools used by our ancestors to divine rain, a ritual regularly performed in the past at the request of many communities in the werea around Sekhukhune. Most of the people moved to Jane Furse.

RPM bought GaMawela from the landowners as the matter was going to court. RPM wanted GaMawela as part of their Der Brochen Mining Project. The community was very shocked to hear that the landowners had agreed to sell the land to RPM, because they had refused to sell it to the government, and were opposing the land claim in court. There was a written agreement with Angloplats, the owner of the mineral rights, that they would not oppose the claim if the community respected their mineral rights. If mining was to start it would only start in another ten years.

The community was advised that they did not have a claim for the mineral rights, and that they could protect their rights to the land in other laws. They found later that plans were drawn up that made it difficult, if not impossible to develop the land and that a mining license was granted to RPM in 2003. The Regional Land Claims Commissioner for Mpumalanga (RLCC) stated that it was done, because the claim by the GaMawela Community had not been gazetted.

The RLCC must have known that the claim was valid and that the community was before the Land Claims Court, because the claim was gazetted in 2000 and the gazette notice formed part of the court papers. Copies of all the court papers were sent to the Commission in 2001. Yet the RLCC never informed the community of these developments.

RPM was also aware of the court action in 2003. Yet RPM failed to inform the Commissioner of the status of the claim and that it was before the court. When questioned by the presiding judge in the land claim, Judge Moloto about their plans for GaMawela, RPM made no mention of the application for the mining license or that they were in the process of doing an Environmental Management Plan, a process in which the community should have participated in.

The farm had strong rivers and streams, and was used for irrigation farming by its occupants long before (white) settlers took it from the community. The GaMawela hope to return to the land and cultivate their fields to feed their families, and create businesses providing products and services to the mines in the area.

As a result of historical factors, many claimants have not been able to claim mineral rights in their ancestral land, despite the recent ruling of the Constitutional Court on the Richtersveld matter, and rely on your department's policies to assist them to become part of the economic future of the country.

The community feared for their graves and the preservation of our cultural and historical heritage. GaMawela was part of the ancestral land of the Bakone ba Mankge and, therefore, was of irreplaceable cultural value to the community.

The Der Brochen project was part of a 100 per cent owned venture by Angloplats - with a 50/50 joint venture planned with an empowerment consortium on some adjacent properties.

38. Ms Clair Hartley (Pretoria)

The Hartley family expressed their dissatisfaction with the pace of land reform in South Africa. Ada Mtamane Hartley was dispossessed of her farms in the Ladysmith district in 1930. A week after her husband died, she was told to leave the farms with her three children and a tin shack was built for her in the Besters werea. She was married in community of property, but she was told that she and her children were not allowed to occupy the farms. Despite promises that her sons could return to the farms when they turned 25, the farms were sold, despite the protests of her sons.

The land claim was timeously lodged and published in the gazette on the 18th of August 2000. Mr Boshoff, who bought the farms, now refused to relinguish his hold on it. The familiy wanted to know why this matter was not addressed by the Land Claims Commissioner in Pietermaritzburg? The land had been lying unused for 74 years because Mr Boshoff had only been using it for winter grazing for his cattle from his other farms in the Free State.

39. William Mullins (Mr) - Pretoria

39.1 General Remarks
In these remarks and notes it was accepted that land restitution and redistribution were necessary for the future stability, development and prosperity of South Africa and would the process rather than the philosophy be discussed. Important factors underpinning the success of the process were numerous and included security of tenure, government's long-term involvement, ongoing production finance, farmer training, the involvement of the private sector, etc.

39.2 Tenure
The question of tenure type and security of tenure were probably the most important issues to be solved upfront in any transaction. Different decisions by the participants would lead to different processes and possible results. Tenure type and security of tenure would determine if government or government agencies would be the only sources of finance or would the private sector also contribute.
The type of farming practiced could also be influenced by security of tenure. For example should the farmer plant long-term orchard crop or short-term cash crops would definitely be influenced by the security of tenure?

39.3 Business Model
The rural African population rated the position of the group very high in the social structure. This and other reasons were responsible for the tendency amongst them to form groups to farm a property. One of the biggest problems faced by these groups was that they became dysfunctional over a period of time. The responsible Government department must properly research the reasons for this so that they could be minimized or eliminated. Possible reasons could be the age differential in the group, or the different levels of education and training, interference of tribal structures and the position of females in the group. A proper business model was therefore a necessity, not only to organise the farming practices, but also to act as community guides.

39.4 Farmer Trainer
The prospective farmers entered the industry at a very difficult time. The effect of globalisation and the huge subsidies paid by the European Union and the USA contributed to the fact that Agriculture in the Southern Hemisphere had become an industry of low profit margins. It was also a historical fact that prospective farmers had limited education and a lack of farming skills. The responsible government department must insure continuous training program that was not only teaching the practical issues of farming but also include management.

39.5 Extension Services
The present extension service must be adapted not only to concentrate on practical issues but also the importance of management issues and the ability to guide the recipients of government aid. The extension staff was very keen to help, but that they suffered a lack of management and financial experience. Agriculture became a risky business and only those people who understood the underlying principles of business administration and management was going to survive in the present climate.

40. B & P Group Financial Services (Pty) Ltd

Land Reform was necessary to redress the injustice of an inherited legacy. However, the pace of these reforms was crucial.

The Committee must consider Land Reforms with empowerment, i.e. equiping the new farmer with all the necessary skills and education to make the transformation process more successful.

A farmer, without the necessary agriculture risk management skills and guidance, was being disadvantaged and the commercial viability of his livelihood and the transformation process was at risk. Further, failure at this stage would only add ammunition to the argument against the land reforms.

Therefore, the pace of land reform was limited by our failure to ensure that the farmer was competent, not only in agriculture issues bit also in managing the price risk of his produce. The Portfolio Committee had access to the resources via the relevant Ministries to implement a nationwide education process for all new and emerging farmers. For example, the current regional and provincial office infra-structure of Land Bank could be utilized in this process.

Therefore, to ensure the process of land reform was successful, one must incorporate an educational system that would include risk management. The pace of the reform would be dictated by ensuring that the farmer was comprehensively equipped to manage not just land issues, but also to manage the market risks.

41. Dr Deon Erasmus - Stellenbosch

Access to land was a huge problem. The Municipality of Stellenbosch had 108 farms on their books. Most of them were rented for ridiculous prices to rich estates and wealthy prominent ex-springboks for at least 40 years. It was difficult to obtain land for skills development and training in the field of sustainable livelihoods and food security for the past two years. There was resistance and the correspondent would relish the chance to present his case at the public hearing, which should read "the lack of land reform in South Africa."

42. Pat Poovalingam - Durban

Up to 350 odd years ago, all land in South Africa belonged to all the people and their respective local leaders as custodian trustees of the inhabitants. That system might or might not have led to abuses in certain cases by some custodians, but that aspect of the past was not relevant for present purposes. However with the advent of colonial rule and the system of individual ownership of specified tracts of land, the system was changed.

The correspondent did not advocate reversion to communal ownership. Yet the fact remained that land was the conduit of all wealth, whether derived from timber, grazing fields, agriculture, mining, township, even for storage of water

Even if it was, the situation changed severely that a reversion would create so much upheaval. Furthermore, at the present time, individual ownership of delineated pieces of land had virtually become the norm desired by most or a very large part of our peoples.

A cardinal rule would be to exempt from expropriation any land which was actually farmed by the owner and/or members of the owner's immediate family.

By helping the poor, like the Friends of the Sick Association, one in fact helped oneself; to paraphrase what a prominent industrialist, Mr Anton Rupert, once said, "if they don't eat, we can't sleep". The national interest and each South African's self-interest would thus be served by compassionate provision for self-help by the poor and the deprived amongst us.

43. Law Review Project

The Law Review Project believed that land reform was important, especially since they were involved in a tenure upgrade of tribal land to private ownership, called the Bakgatla Ba Mocha Project which fell under the Dr JS Moroka Municipality.

This project had been running for approximately 4 years and experienced insurmountable problems in receiving payment from the Department of Land Affairs. This had resulted in sub-contractors (transferring attorneys and land surveyors) refusing to continue with the project, unless some form of written guarantee could be given with regard to payment. The ultimate problem being that this left the potential landowners waiting for their land with no hope of a positive outcome.

44. Johann Kirsten (Prof) - Pretoria

So the question remained why the process failed to deliver? In the first place there wase a range of features of the administration of the Land Reform programme that violated the design criteria set out initially. The large bureaucracy that emerged and the length of time that was required to get an application for a land reform grant approved were astonishing. Since the time an individual or a groups of households had shown interest in acquiring a specific piece of land a lengthy process of consultation and planning took place which drain a tremendous amount of Departmental resources. An application for accessing the land redistribution grant needed to go through a number of phases.

The ideology behind the market-assisted process was to minimise the role of government. This had clearly not been achieved and was largely responsible for the slow progress with land redistribution. The excessive centralisation of the land reform programme could be considered as the main reason for the poor performance and the slow delivery of land to beneficiaries.

Notwithstanding the tedious planning process, planning around farm models and appropriate supported to beneficiaries, once they have acquired land under the Programme, was inadequate. Moreover, important pieces of legislation impeding land reform within a market-assisted framework, in particular the Subdivision of Agricultural Land Act, had not been repealed.

The government should only provide the framework (legislative and otherwise) within which the process should take place and should not be a player in the process. In the initial design of the land reform programme it was envisaged that government would empower and enable farmers in financial difficulty to sell-off parts of their farms to individual black farmers. Due to various legal impediments this was not possible.

Against this background, it was not surprising that the South African Land Reform Programme had not lived up to expectations and that it was doomed to fail in obtaining the redistribution targets. More importantly, the objectives of increased efficiency and equity, increased growth and poverty reduction looks unlikely to be achieved. It was also doubtful whether the programme as implemented until recently had the ability to create the class of independent and viable small-scale family farms that was initially envisaged. It also seemed that the vision of South African agriculture of a more diversified farm structure centred on competitive commercial, owner-operated, family farms had only a very remote chance of being realized.

45. Mr Francis Steyn (Mr) - Stellenbosch

This submission was in his personal capacity for two reasons namely:
1. There was insufficient time to obtain approval from the national and provincial departments of Agriculture.
2. Numerous personnel disagreed with him that land reform was linked to LandCare.

In the absence of the latest statistics, land reform was behind schedule and the alarm bell would ring louder and louder in the next 10 years. If the department carried on with this autocratic style of imposing how much of the land should be transformed by certain dates, the greatest partner in land reform, the current farmers, would be lost. They would sit back and wait for the government to solve the land reform problem, because certain dates and certain amounts were imposed, without obtaining their inputs. In the end the government would be forced to take drastic measures to meet their promises of land reform to the people of South Africa so that the story starts sounding like something that had happened time and again in Africa and the result would probably be the same.

Turning this delicate situation around would require thoughtful planning and foresight by learning from the mistakes made in Africa. One of these basic lessons was to involve the current farmers and empower them to implement land reform and at the same time create economic empowerment for all the people. The government made a complex problem like land reform 20 times more complex by trying to implement it with a bureaucratic system. Nobody had real ownership of the land reform process and yet nobody wanted to give (any one department or division) ownership to another, the result was a slow process. Only the government (certain people within each Provincial Government) was allowed to implement this process. At the recent LandCare conference the correspondent was instructed by the National Department that LandCare had nothing to do with Land Reform. This was completely unacceptable, because everybody had to do with the biggest challenge facing agriculture today, namely empowerment in which land reform played an important role.

Since 1994 many Land Reform applications had been dealt with and much time, effort and money had been spent on this initiative, but a sustainable outcome, in fact, could have more unsustainable projects than sustainable projects, if measured in terms of financial viability. At the same time subsidies to farmers was drastically reduced and farmers were subjected to the prices of international markets. These farmers had to adjust and marketing became an important part of their daily business, which in itself was a very fine skill. The government was trying to establish new farmers (on a small scale) with all these skills on natural resources which were not as bountiful as most of our international competition, without the help of the existing farmers who have adapted to these changes. It seemed that government did not want to succeed.

There were a few exceptions to this and some of these exceptions have been undertaken by private companies and in some cases private public partnerships. The lessons learnt from these were similar to the LandCare movement and the book published in this regard, namely," Towards Sustainable LandCare practices in South Africa by Richard Holt, August 2004". These projects were the so-called equity projects, which were hopelessly under-utilised and should play a major role in land reform in the Western Cape and even South Africa. This belief was shared by the communities that have benefited as well as certain academics and top managers in agriculture but not necessarily by all managers in the Department of Agriculture within South Africa.

The Olive People's Trust and the Thandi Project were 2 examples of people's empowerment and successful Land Reform that were displayed at the recent LandCare conference. These projects did not happen overnight and the community did an incredible amount of work to make them successful and yet the government believed that it could do a better job on its own. It was frightening to think that we had all this goodwill out there and in most cases these people were highly skilled in financial and technical fields and government chose to ignore these skills and not add the social skills to their portfolio, so that they can empower others that have lived for decades with them on the farm.

In short it could be said that without empowering the current landowner, you would never afford to empower the people that have never had resources. Government did not have enough funds to buy itself out of this challenge. It had to look for other sources locally and internationally, but then it should be financially viable. Obviously the financial empowerment from the government must be targeted at the previously disadvantaged people, and together with the skills and financial commitment of the farmers, create a win-win situation.

46. Roodepoort West Land Claims Committee (RWLCC)

RWCLL was formed by former residents of the Roodepoort /Maraisburg werea, who were excluded by the Land claims process. Appeals were made to the Presidency and the Ministry, alerting them about the plight of the majority of disposed South Africans who were excluded from land claims process. Both Regional and National Land Claims Commissioners indicated to the residents that nothing could be done by them, unless, Parliament could amend the Act.

However, the people of South Africa had been disposed for over 350 years and therefore the government could not possibly address this issue over a period of less than 10 years. Land ownership was a human right. By insisting on closing this process by 2005, was tantamount to dispossessing our people for the second time, especially since statistics indicated that of the entire 6 million dispossessed population of South Africa, only 2% submitted their claims on time.

We had collected 5000 signatures at this stage and we would continue with these petitions to the government until the 1998 deadline was amended by Parliament so that the majority of 98% of South Africans can be considered for land restitution, land redistribution and land tenure reform process.

We found that the land distribution process was flawed, because of the following reasons: a) not all sectors in the various communities were duly consulted; b) there was no rights enquiry research done to trace all families of the various areas; c) no family tree research was done; d) there was no clear understanding of the Land Act from those who guided the process; e) no efforts were made to alert South African who were out of the country; f) once the December 1998 deadline was set, no safety net or appeal process was put in place for those who were excluded.

47. Consolidated Association of Employers of Southern Africa Region (CAESAR)

CAESAR was a registered employer organisation with more than a thousand members in the agricultural sector. They had gained a national economic prospective which they wished to share with the Committee. Over some time they actively restructured companies in terms of BEE.

In a democratic society land reform should only take place where there were voluntary sellers and voluntary buyers. Transfer of land should take into account the continuation of production on the same levels as before, otherwise it would lead to increased poverty. To reach a point by 2014 that 30% of agricultural land be in hands of black farmers,irrespective of whether they had the necessary expertise, experience or funding was considered irresponsible.

In this regard, reference was made to agricultural land in the former homelands, where farms, were taken over as going concerns, but were at present unproductive. There were huge tracts of arable State land that were not utilized, which could be used to expedite land reform. Inappropriate land reform was dissuading potential investors from investing in the Republic.

It was requested that meaningful consultation should take place between stakeholders long before land reform decisions were taken. Secondly, agricultural land must be assessed to determine a market related price. The value of livestock, implements and crops including potential value such as forestation, fruit trees and good will that may take years to develop or mature must be taken into account.

In view of the perceived draconian labour legislation emerging farmers found it difficult if not impossible to comply with the legislation especially minimum wage legislation as determined by Sectoral Determination 8, for the Farm Worker Sector which placed a heavy burden on farmers. The latter aspect had also had a negative impact on employment and had resulted in job losses.

48. Robert Rapatsa (Mr) - Boksburg

Agriculture and business land could be redistributed, but criteria should be to laid down. Land should be used to produce and development of people. No person should own land and not use it productively. The land must provide the community with food and it should belong to the State at all times, which was the custodian of the land.

49. Majola MM (Mr) - Estcourt

The problem began when the farmers heard that their land had been claimed. They decided to pursue a Game Reserve, meaning that the families that were forcefully removed from their lands could not claim the land back. Families on the land were treated as tenants and would be removed to make way for the Game Reserve. These families, which disagreed with game reserve idea needed land so that they can pursue commercial farming and other business ventures. The communities requested that the Land Claims Commission and Department of Land Affairs to buy back this land and give ownership to the rightful owners. Other families have had their human rights violated and were living in fear that they will be removed from where they were born.

50. Mogamad Cassiem Gata (Mr) - Kensington

For more than eight years the correspondent waited patiently for the claim to be settled. During the early months of 2004, he contacted the District Six Ownership Land Committee. They sent a form for completion, where he indicated an interest to the Commission of Land Claims.

51. Kaapsehoop Land Claims Committee

As the above mentioned Committee, which was situated at Kaapsehoop within the Nelspruit District in Mpumalanga indicated their dissatisfaction with the pace of land reform. The process was too slow and time-consuming. They submitted their claim as early as possible and long before the submission due date and the Land Affairs Office in Pretoria confirmed the receipt of the claim by the 26 October 1996. They had undergone all the necessary processes as expected and eventually promised that by December 2003 everything would be finalised, since their claim was clear, logical, simple and straight forward. However there was satisfactory indication yet from the Land Affairs Office in Nelspruit.

Some people, who lodged claims long after them received land, but they did not yet received their land, even though all the required documents (the business plan and constitution) as requested were submitted. The continuous replacement of Land Affairs officials also retarded progress and results in the loss of some important documents. As Kaapsehoop Land Claim Committee they were about to succumb to the pressure of the communities who were tired of waiting. They wanted to erect informal infrastructures unlawfully on the land they were claiming.

52. MMaditlhokwa Integrated Community Development Project

This was an NGO in North West Province in Rustenburg region Marikana with the objective to help farm people access land for residential and agricultural use, for example, formal farming villages around farming areas.
Land redistribution was complicated and claimants could not know what was needed and that officials in the programme were not properly trained, which could lead to ignorance and unfaithfulness. Officials processed applications, but stayed too long in offices or they went from one office to office, without any progress. Sometimes claimants were told that an official in charge had resigned, but later to discover that he was still working for the Department.

Land restitution was coping well and restored land and human dignity to disadvantaged. There was no proper awareness in place and people became aware of this programme after the closing date, by witnessing applicants receiving compensation or land back. They then requested another opportunity.

Land Tenure programme was not known to the public. Awareness campaigns were suggested throughout the country especially in rural areas. Rural people were very disadvantaged even in the new government. Government should give farm people a first preference in their applications, as they continue to be evicted and unfairly treated in farming areas. They should also enjoy the fruit of freedom and break chains of oppression.

53. National Agri Land Forum

The National Agri Land forum was an association of organized affected landowners representing more than 2 000 landowners. The establishment of new farmers on highly productive agricultural land through the land claims programme had in most cases been an embarrassment to all the parties involved, including the government, claimants, donors and commercial farmers. The neglect of show banana farms in the Letsitele Valley, the starvation of milk cattle in Hartebeesfontein and the collapse of vegetable farming in the Trichardtsdal were but a few to mention. Organised agriculture was extremely concerned with the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs ability to implement land reform without crippling commercial agriculture in the process.

Notwithstanding this fact, the Department carried on to replace established farmers with inexperience black claimants. This could be seen in the concept of the Agri Bee policy document where it stated that 65% of high value land had to be owned by black farmers in the next 10 years. The problem did not lie in the policy of land reform, but in the management thereof. The management problem was however relatively simple to overcome. Despite the post-settlement failures, future land reform could be successful if it went hand in hand with agricultural development and if there was a partnership between beneficiaries, government and commercial farmers.

This partnership was a popular theme during political speeches and at conferences where it was discussed, but at grass roots level nothing happened. Commercial agriculture was invited to participate in the projects when it was already doomed and then got blamed that they lacked enthusiasm. Farmers in the Letaba District had been offended by the Departments of Agriculture and Land Affairs, as well as the Land Claims Commissioner as they have been blamed for being non-coorperative, although they have offered help on numerous occassions, just to be ignored.

AgriSA and its regional structures committed their support for land reform and showed their willingness to help on many occassions. Earlier this year, Free State Agriculture in cooperation with the Wool Growers Association, the organized milk industry and the National Maize Producers Organization, as well as certain farmers were the only credible group that could ensure that land reform and agricultural development can succeed. To ignore them could only pointed to political by-motives.


A national conference on land reform and especially on the implementation of the process, the planning of agricultural development on claimed farms and the maintenance and growth of local rural economies, could be a step in the right direction. Trust was a prerequisite for such a discussion, especially after the Minister and her departments made such a blunder with the AgriBEE policy document. The minister and the department would first have to proof their credibility as a partner in the planning of the econstruction of agriculture to farmers in general.

54. Agri-Letaba

Land restitution claims were gazetted, affecting 783 farms and subdivisions of farms. A further 1050 outstanding claims had to be finalised by December 2005. Claims, which were gazetted, but not finalized, caused severe strain on the current owners, while not satisfying the aspirations of the claimants. A claim was gazetted 41 months ago (April 2001) on behalf of the Maupa Community for Mooketsi, South Africa's main tomato production area. The matter had proceeded , apparently due to a conflicting claim by the Modjadji Community. Agri-Letaba had not been able to obtain a copy of the Modjadji claim. This should have been sorted out before gazetting.

Claims gazetted in the Phalaborwa and Trichardtsdal areas were 7 months and 6 months old respectively. In the Gravelotte (game farming) and Trichardtsdal (vegetables farming) areas, current owners accepted offers in June 2004, but the matter had not progressed and the Land Claims Commission in Polokwane had not been able or forthcoming with explanations to the delay.

It should be taken into account that a number of restrictions come into play once a claim had been gazetted, such as, further development of properties and planting of permanent crops came to a standstill being subject to the LCC condoning such development. It was almost impossible to obtain action from the LCC in this regard. Secondly, financial institutions froze or withdrew funding once gazetting had taken place. The properties could not be offered as collateral for working capital. Thirdly, properties could not be sold to other buyers, which should not pose a problem if claims were finalised speedily. If a claim was unresolved for a lengthy period, land values would be based out-dated transactions, which took place before gazetting. Again, when farmers were unsure about the duration of the process, it was a natural reaction that the properties and crops will be neglected, especially once an offer had been accepted, but not finalised with the current owner.

It was clear that the process of land restitution posed a tremendous challenge to the claimants and the State as far as it was declared policy of maintaining production and sustaining the properties was concerned. Limpopo Province had taken the initiative to develop a policy of partnerships between Department of Agriculture, new land owners, the labour force and strategic partners - the previous owners, who had the know-how, in an effort to ensure propensity for all, but especially the new landowners and farm workers. This initiative was in infancy but deserved serious attention and formalisation.


55. University of Venda

55.1 SLAG
Through various legislation and policies most black people in South Africa were denied land occupation and user rights. It was thus important to expose the extent to which the new government policy of redressing inequity in land allocation had been achieved via the SLAG projects in Limpopo Province. Snap synopsis showed that the average land size occupied by the SLAG household beneficiaries and the control group before 1994 was 0.5 hectares. SLAG household beneficiaries have however increased their present average land size to 4.8 hectares (an increase of about 840%). However considering that government policy was to redistribute 30% of white owned and government land by the year 2015, the quantity of redistributed land through the three programmes identified for this study was still very low.

55.2 LRAD Projects
LRAD projects were only implemented towards the end of 2001, thus their small size in terms of household beneficiaries. The average land size occupied by LRAD beneficiaries improved from 0.85 hectares before 1994 to about 448 hectares in 2003, an increase of about 5 300%. Once more, it should be noted that this huge percentage increase reflected the impact of the apartheid government's policy of congesting black people into very small communal plots. As reflected before, the amount of the envisaged 30% should be achieved by 2015. Taking cognisance of the fact that the sample sizes for SLAGs and LRAD projects differed markedly, on a percentage basis, the LRAD sub-programme seemed to be redistributing much bigger land sizes than the SLAGS did (an average of 448 hectares vs 4.8 hectares).

56. Lebanon Community Trust

The downside of our land reform was continuous monitoring and evaluation was lacking and sometimes absent. Government needed to be more visible in protecting its disadvantaged communities against so-called seasoned agricultural specialists. The Trust's farm workers' technical expertise was underestimated and their willingness to acquire management skills was highly underrated. The bottom line was that the Trust needed government's financial assistance, as well as its continuous monitoring and evaluation until projects were sustainable.

The Trust empowered themselves, because as farm workers they assisted advantaged farmers to become successful, which meant that they could also become successful. They needed assistance from government subsidy structure, Land Bank, Development Bank and private sector. They were diversifying their business to be sustainable, eliminated debt and ran business on a positive cashflow. Furthermore, they were restructuring to employ all 147 shareholders in the business. With properly structured equity shareholding projects, government could expedite its delivery programme. The programme could be full of pitholes, however, properly managed it would be highly successful.




57. Badfontein Land Owners Association

The process of land reform at first seemed to be equitable and simple. Today it appeared to be heading for a legal wrangle at best. Primary agriculture as food provider, employer and substantial contributor to the Gross National Product was a fragile industry. Once damaged it would be very difficult to repair the damage already done in the opening phase, pertaining to restitution of land rights had become so involved, so expensive and damaging that it had brought agriculture close to the pointed of economical no return. If the industry could barely survive the first phase economically what were the chances of success with those still to come. This was illustrated by the effect of two seemingly insignificant results of the gazetting of a claim.

Firstly, the fact that the intended sale of land, as well as developments had to be communicated to the land claims commissioner together with the enormity of the claims, which stopped most initiatives in this regard effectively. Collateral value of land had declined, business had slowed and dependent rural towns and communities were suffering as a consequence. Secondly, time in this process, was essentially the enemy. It was disastrous for a claim not to have been attended to for more than five years. Worse, was for an unattended claim to be gazetted and left pending for years. Therefore, the land restitution process must be brought to finality before embarking on the next phase. Also, the willing buyer - willing seller principle was essential for stability.

58. MEREC Farms

In 2003 applications for the LRAD grants were "packed" and not processed until funds were available or instructed to the contrary by the Department of Land Affairs. Many farmers were now so sceptical to sell through the process of LRAD, because of the long drawn processes, which in most cases ended-up with no desired results for both the buyer and the seller. LRAD did not work for the MEREC farms. What they learnt in our interactions with these groups confirmed their view that the land redistribution programme, that was, LRAD was non-existent. They were certainly not undermining any progress made by the Government with regard to the LRAD programme. However, the pace of this programme clearly undermined the needs and the plight of the poorest majority of who would never be suitable AgriBEE candidates, unless they were first empowered with the LRAD grants.

The attitude of the government towards the LRAD programme did not inspire hope for a better future. A perfect example, would be the life span of the programme which commenced in 2001 and ran out of funds before 2002. The question was whether there were any prior planning involved in this programme. One also wondered if the authorities really understood the gross invaluable impact that a successful LRAD programme might bring to the ordinary citizens and to local economy.





59. Mr N. Padayachi (Durban)

Most farm owners who benefited during the colonial era used their agricultural land as security to the Banks to secure loans so that they could invest into other businesses thus depriving the disadvantaged communities. All land in the rural areas held by government trust, chiefs and traditional leaders in trust must be given to the people living on it; ownership with title deeds. Some farmers used the Land Bank loans to buy farms, but also conduct sand mining activities on their farm, where as disadvantaged communities could have benefited.

The Tongaat Hullet Group owned about 37 760 hectares of land. Did the group pay for the land in the colonial era? They were selling most of the agricultural land and the land along the coast was changed into residential and business purposes and a fortune was made that did not benefit the people in the country. This Group was not even prepared to donate any land for housing purposes to the State, but sold land to Durban Metro for R20 million for industrial purposes, which was now being developed. This needed to be investigated.

If South Africa wanted to achieve complete freedom prosperity and stability, then redistribution of land and reparation must be implemented as soon as possible. Ten years into South Africa's democracy and the process of land reform and reparation was not moving fast enough. The problem to be addressed was to avoid the path of Zimbabwe, so that we could heal the wound of the past and make South Africa a better place to live in for future generations to come.

60. Vuki Farming (Pty) Ltd

The company consisted of 42 families that farmed for three years in the Elgin-Grabou valley, which was also called Vuki farm. They were put under liquidation, but the Land bank persuaded them to continue to lift the liquidation. They wanted to buy the farm, but due to a prolonged sales transaction the sale fell through. They turned to the Agri Western Cape, the Land Bank, political role players and other role players, but no success was achieved.

61. Sandford Land Owners

As at 25 March 2004, the status of Sandford properties were as follows (out of 30 properies) 11 properties had been finalised; 8 properties offers had been signed, but not yet submitted to the Minister; 8 properties were still in the process of negotiations with Chief Land Claims Commissioner; 3 properties were not interested in settling. This reflected the commitment by the landowners. Seven of the landowners have been waiting since early March this year for their agreements to be submitted to the Minister. These agreements have since been submitted to the Chief Land Claims Commissioner in early July only to be side-tracked and put on hold for undisclosed reasons. The agreements had since been sent back twice by Pretoria for correction and it was submitted for the fourth time in early October 2004.

What was frustrating in this process was that claimants had not been work-shoped; there was a serious communication breakdown between land-owners and the Provincial Commission; the area had become contested on the jurisdiction of traditional authorities; and groups without legitimate claims had submitted claims long after the expiry date.

COMMITTEE DECISION:

Committee AGREED to mandate the Chief Land Claims Commissioner to consider the matters raised by Sandford, and as a matter of urgency convened a meeting in the Week of 25-29 October 2004 to clear up the misunderstanding and thereafter provide the Committee with a written response to indicate how the matter would be resolved.

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE COMMITTEE:

1. Government should attend to the administrative capacity of the Department of Land Affairs and the Commission on Restitution;

All role-players from the public and private sector should get involved in the land reform process in the country;

There was an urgent need to secure the rights of farm dwellers with legislation and proactive programmes;

There was a need to improve the monitoring of land reform implementation and also to focus on long term solutions, rather than the short term approach;

Shortage of personnel within the Department should be addressed as a matter of urgency, if government was to keep pace with the demands of communities;

There was a need to challenge organised agriculture and private land owners to support land reform by transferring portions of their land to farm dwellers;

Land reform must be managed in a positive way as a necessity and integral element of national reconciliation;

There was a need to review and assess the current market-based approach to land reform;

There should be commitment by the state to provide adequate budgets and other resources for a large scale redistribution;

A moratorium should be placed on leasing and sales of large hectares of land to foreigners;

Amendments to Extension of Security of Tenure Act and Labour Tenants Act were required to protect the rights of the farm dwellers;

As a pro-active player government should purchase, expropriate and sub-divide the land when it was necessary;
The Department must play a meaningful role in post-settlement and agricultural production;

There was a need for a national Land Summit in order to review the government's achievements and current problems relating to land reform in the country;

Land should be redistributed equitably and the people's access to land should be increased in order to address the historical legacies of dispossession and overcrowding;

Security of tenure should be ensured, especially for those who historically had the least secure land tenure, particularly women and other maginalised groups;

Communities should be allowed to participate meaningfully in decisions about allocation, tenure and use of land;

Those people who had access to land should use it productively, beneficially and in a sustainable manner, with respect both to supporting themselves and their dependents and enhancing national food security;

The willing seller - willing buyer land policy approach needed a review;

A progression land tax should be introduced;

The government should impose a moratorium on farm evictions;

There was a need for an integrated land reform approach in all spheres of government, which should include all the departments; and

Government should consider district/local area based approach to land reform.


COMMITTEE COMMENTS

Having considered all presentations made, both oral and written, the Committee would like to make the following comments. Firstly, there seems to be a misunderstanding and/or confusion amongst the public with regard to the three pillars of the land reform programme in the country, namely; restitution, redistribution and land tenure. Secondly, while people were concerned about the pace of land reform, they appreciated the stable and legal way in which the land reform was conducted in the country. Thirdly, in the light of the complexity and the apparent lack of administrative capacity, the land reform programme seemed to be more protracted process than originally anticipated. Finally, it became clear to the committee from the hearings, that whilst Parliament passed the Labour Tenants Act, 1996 (Act 3, 1996) and the Extension of Security of Tenure Act, 1997 (Act 62 of 1997), which provided for security of tenure for people living on other people's land and regulated the eviction of such people under certain circumstances, farm dwellers were still vulnerable.

THEREFORE, THE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS THAT:

1) A proper training and adequate information for law enforcement agencies in relation to the implementation of Extension of Security of Tenure Act, 1997 (Act 62 of 1997) and Labour Tenants Act, 1996 (Act 3 of 1996) needs to be intensified and properly monitored;

2) Government should increase the budget for the land reform programme;

Government must ensure that the victims of farm evictions receive legal representation from the state as stated in the Extension of Security of Tenure Act;

The department must tighten up all loopholes in relation to the Extension of Security of Tenure Act and Labour Tenants Act to ensure the security of tenure for the people, who live in the rural areas and should submit those amendments to Parliament before the end of 2005;

Government should consider placing a moratorium on the selling of agricultural land to foreigners until the Ministerial Committee on Land Ownership by Foreigners reported to the Minister;

The Office of the Registrar of Deeds should register land in terms of race and gender so that land reform progress or the transfer of land to blacks could be adequately monitored;

Government should develop mechanisms especially within the current land policy to dissuade the unnecessary inflation of land prices;

Government must use all its legislative framework, including expropriation to acquire land;

Government should consider utilising all its institutions, including SETAs, to educate farm workers and farm dwellers in terms of their rights;

There must be an integration of proper land reform amongst all spheres of government as well as with all state departments; and

Government must develop mechanisms to minimise the exposure of emerging farmers to high interest bearing loans.


APPRECIATION

The committee expressed its appreciation for the passion and enthusiasm shown by stakeholders for the engagement on the pace of land reform in South Africa. It also noted with interest and appreciation the passion displayed by people who came from all over the country in order to be heard by Parliament.

Report to considered.