Date: 24/03/2010
Source: The African Christian Democratic Party
Title: ACDP: Dudley: Speech by ACDP Member of Parliament in the debate on the Rural Development and Land Reform budget vote, Parliament

"The ACDP is encouraged that the need for more spending and better co-ordination in the important area of Rural Development has been acknowledged and we welcome the Finance Ministers statement that in addition to the funds allocated to the Department of Rural Development and Land Affairs for the comprehensive rural development strategy, a new grant is being set up to support on-site water and sanitation infrastructure as part of the rural housing programme. An initial R1.2 billion over three years has been provided.
About 85% of the poorest South Africans live in rural areas so it is no surprise that the President (of the RSA) has declared Rural Development and Land Affairs one of government's five priorities. The ACDP therefore expects serious attention to the fact that past budgets have been grossly inadequate to meet capacity requirements, to achieve targets in redistributing land and for making restitution.

With funds allocated to land acquisition having been persistently scaled back the ACDP has questioned government's intentions regarding purchasing of land. Land reform must bolster confidence and regain peak production for food security or the people of South Africa will be the losers all round.

The department of rural development and land reform said that by October last year, it had settled 95% of the 79,696 claims lodged since 1994 and is reported to have said that "the outstanding claims are all rural, of a complex nature, and will require higher budget allocations to settle with the claimants" and that "the department is now projecting that it will take another ten years to settle the outstanding claims." The Restitution Programme, responsible for settling land claims and providing settlement support, however shows a huge drop from 2.1 billion to R1.57 billion.

A government report [titled Department of Rural Development and Land Reform Strategic Plan 2010-2013] has proposed two future land use models for South Africa. In response to this document the ACDP places on record that we oppose nationalisation of productive land which will have disastrous repercussions for the South African economy. It is ludicrous that Government is using the extremely high failure rate of farms taken over already to justify the seizing of remaining productive land.

The first model proposes declaring all productive land a national asset, implying state ownership and state decisions regarding who would work the land, for what purposes and under what conditions. The second model proposes placing a ceiling on how much land individual farmers could own while maintaining a freehold land tenure system for South Africa.

While the pro's and con's of the second proposal merit debate, the ACDP cautions that impulsive actions could take us further from our goal of ‘prosperity for all'. Careful consideration of the impact of such a move on the lives of South Africans is critical.

The first proposal creates greater concern as it threatens to unleash a steep fall in agricultural investment directly affecting employment. Small rural communities will suffer most and rural poverty will increase resulting in increased urban migration and further hardships. A drastic fall in food production will affect food processing industries and agricultural supply industries...and rising food prices will further negatively impact on the living standards of all South Africans.

Job creation is a national priority and we cannot afford to undervalue the role of agriculture in our economy. The number of jobs created per unit of investment is higher in agriculture than any other sector and supports 8.5 million people.

While the budget for land reform has drastically increased it is far less than the R15 billion the department estimated it will need in 2010/11 in order to reach the 30 percent target of redistributing ‘white-owned agricultural land by 2014 (almost a quarter). The ACDP calls for an increased budget allocation to facilitate the acquisition of land for redistribution."