Date: 27/03/208
Source: Department of Land Affairs
Title: SA: Xingwana: SADC meeting of ministries responsible for land

Welcome address by the Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs, Hon Lulu Xingwana (MP) at the meeting of Southern African Development Community (SADC) Ministers responsible for land, Sandton Convention centre, South Africa

Programme Director
Honourable Chairperson, Bradford Machila, Minister of Lands in Zambia
Honourable Ministers from member countries of SADC
Honourable Deputy Ministers
The Executive Secretary of SADC Dr Joao Caholo
Deputy Executive Secretary of SADC Secretariat
Permanent secretaries of SADC
Members of the media
Ladies and Gentlemen

Good morning to everybody and a warm welcome to the Sandton Convention centre to South Africa to all the dignitaries who have come from all the 14 SADC Member states.

You will recall that this gathering today was preceded by a preparatory meeting of senior officials of the SADC Secretariat and Ministries responsible for land and Land and Reform to prepare an agenda for this meeting. Today as Ministers we will discuss progress made on the establishment of a Regional Land Reform Facility.

The facility is premised on four components, namely the: policy formulation and implementation support, capacity building, information and communication and research. The expected outputs of the facility are that it should:

* Provide support to member states in formulating and implementing land and agrarian reform policies and programmes,
* Mobilise financing and technical services of regional and international experts in support of land reform programmes,
* Support sharing of information and best practices, and
* Facilitate capacity strengthening of regional and national agencies including civil society institutions.

Today the meeting will also provide a mechanism for exchange of information and best practices for land related matters to support development implementation of pro-poor land reform policies. We will also discuss various land reform challenges facing member states and initiatives that they are undertaking to address these challenges.

In the SADC region land is a key production resource to 70 percent of the rural based population who depend on agriculture and utilise natural resources for income and livelihood. Therefore, access to land becomes very crucial for the rural poor to enable them to participate in economic activities that lead to poverty reduction.

Equally so, at its 52nd national conference, the African National Congress, noted that South African Land Reform has not been located within a broader strategy of rural development that is able to improve rural livelihoods.

The ANC further noted that Black economic empowerment and the deracialisation of agricultural ownership was necessary but that conditions were insufficient to realise transformation goals in rural South Africa.

The ruling party therefore called for strengthening the voice of rural South Africans, empowering of poor communities and building the momentum behind agrarian change and land reform by supporting the self organisation of rural people, working together with progressive movements and organisations and building forums and structures through which rural people can articulate their demands and interests.

As I address you this morning about improving the living conditions of the rural poor and black economic empowerment, I am delighted to announce that since the launch of the Agri-Black Economic Empowerment (AgriBEE) framework in July 2004 my colleague in the Department of Trade and Industry in South Africa, Hon Mandisa Mphahlwa, has approved our application for the AgriBEE Sector Transformation Charter which was gazetted in terms of Section 12 of the B-BBEE Act (2003) on the 20 March 2008.

The objectives of AgriBEE are to eliminate racial discrimination in the agricultural sector through implementing initiatives that mainstream black South Africans in all levels of agricultural activity and enterprises along the entire agricultural value chain.

Land is at the centre of food security and poverty reduction interventions and issues of access, tenure security and utilisation will be addressed. As a region we need to tackle land issues urgently in order to foster regional stability and promote economic growth on a sustainable basis. For us to achieve the goals of land reform we will require a major new effort to build capacity, both at national and regional levels.

Given our collective history of colonialism, dispossession and repression, it is not surprising that the stories of the member states are very similar, notwithstanding, possibly, the different approaches that each individual SADC member state embraces.

It is worth to note that when our new democratic state came into power in 1994, its mandate was very clear: undoing the past injustices and leveraging available national resources to foster reconciliation and stimulate economic growth and development.

In response to this national imperative, the Ministry for Agriculture and Land Affairs developed a land reform process premised on three legs - restitution, redistribution and land tenure reform.

Firstly and foremost, the over-arching strategic objectives of our land reform were formulated to:
* redistribute 30 percent of white-owned agricultural land to black South Africans by 2014
* restitute land to provide equitable redress to victims of racial land dispossession and
* address land tenure insecurity that existed in the rural areas, particularly the former -Bantustan areas.

Restitution

By February this year, only 4 891 of the land claims were outstanding, the commission had settled more than 94 percent of the claims lodged by the 31 December 1998.

The performance of the commission in settling land claims has enabled our government to restore at least two million hectares of land to our people.

The challenge associated with the settlement of the outstanding claims should not be underestimated, however, as these are rural and very complex in nature. These challenges which include, amongst others, the following:

* traditional leader conflict in terms of jurisdiction, boundaries and land ownership
* claims that will still be in the Land Claims Court (the finalisation of which the commission has no control over)
* the exorbitant land prices and the unavailability of alternative land
* protracted and involved negotiation and facilitation processes
* disputes with landowners mainly on land prices and validity of claims
* claims where there are family/community disputes.

Redistribution

Equally important in our relentless quest to address the "land question" in our country, is our redistribution programme, which is aimed at redistributing 30 percent of white-owned agricultural land to black South Africans by 2014. To date, a total of 4,1 million ha have been delivered to black South Africans, against the 2014 target of 24,6 million ha (2,2 million ha of which have been redistributed through other land reform programmes apart from the restitution programme).

The Department of Land Affairs has introduced another strategy known as, Pro-Active Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS) - In contrast to the previous applications-directed approach, the department now proactively identifies and purchases land (based on land needs trends) and distributes this land in terms of these established needs. One of the challenges that have emerged in connection with PLAS - which we are dealing with - is in terms of whether the State can procure farmland as "going concerns" and the maintenance of such assets as there is an inevitable time-lapse between the procurement of such 'going concerns' and the transfer to the beneficiaries.

Land Tenure Reform

Land Tenure Reform occupies a very strategic position and role within the Government's transformational agenda - successful tenure reform programme implementation will make a very critical contribution and impact on our rural development strategy, enjoyment of rights and dignity enshrined in our Constitution and advances our socio-economic development targets.

The implementation of the Communal Land Rights Act (ClaRA) is another fundamental intervention in addressing land tenure reform imperatives in South Africa, and the development and sustainability of rural economies. The Act was, among other reasons, aimed at providing for the transfer of communal land to communities and to provide for the democratic administration of communal land by the communities themselves. The Act, once it comes into operation, will effectively change the lives of about 21 million South Africans.

One of the biggest challenges facing us around tenure reform is possibly in relation to the protection of the land rights (and associated rights) of farm dwellers and farm workers.

Though the government has passed two pieces of tenure security legislations, the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (ESTA) and the Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Act (LTA) since 1994, there is sufficient evidence that farm dwellers and farm workers continue to loose their rights at an alarming rate. Part of our response in addressing this menace is by setting up a Land Rights Facility to mainly provide legal and mediation support in cases of infringements of land rights of farm workers and farm dwellers. This also includes, amongst others, a call centre (which has already been set up) that will improve farm dweller access to the departmental services in cases of need.

On the legislative front, the department has also initiated legislation to fill the gaps in both ESTA and LTA, which should culminate in an Amendment Act by 2009.

Effective land administration, vesting and disposal of state land also play crucial roles in our pursuits for land tenure reform in our land reform programme. Currently notable initiatives in this regard include the following:
* efficient public land administration: an audit of all registered sate land in the country
* vesting of state land: confirmation of ownership of State land (vesting) to ensure effective management and control of State land for both land reform and development purposes and
* disposal of state land to support state development objectives.

In our quest to address the spatial inequalities and improve the land-use decision-making processes, the department has developed legislative proposals in form of the Land Use Management Bill (LUMB), certain aspects of which are currently being piloted in some of our provinces (Northern Cape and Limpopo Provinces).

Post Settlement Support

Beyond the challenges of land acquisition and redistribution, lie bigger challenges - the quantity and quality of support given to the beneficiaries of land reform to ensure that the resituated and redistributed land is productively and sustainably utilised.

We do have land reform projects that have failed and our analysis of these projects points to the urgent need to review the quality of our integrated approach to land reform delivery to our beneficiaries. Very clearly, singular emphasis on land acquisition and redistribution at the expense of equal (or even more) efforts on post-settlement support provision can undo all the good work done towards achieving land reform objectives.

It is against this background that February this year, the department launched this ambitious project of developing the Settlement Implementation Support (SIS) strategy to both resuscitate projects that are at the verge of collapsing as well as mitigate the possibilities of the collapse of future land reform projects.

In February 2007, the President of South Africa, his deputy and the Directors - General initiated a review of government's priorities, programmes and strategies. This review concluded inter alia that:

(i) improving access to land for the security of tenure and agricultural production should be reaffirmed as government's top priority, and
(ii) that there was an urgent need for the departments of agriculture and land affairs programmes to focus more sharply on increasing access to land, increasing the participation of historically disadvantaged persons in the agricultural sector, food production and generating rural employment, thereby contributing to more accessible food supplies.

We have developed a programme to fast track the delivery of land, namely the Land and Agrarian Reform Programme called LARP. In terms of LARP we have undertaken to:

* redistribute five million ha of white-owned agricultural land to 10 000 new agricultural producers
* increase black entrepreneurs in the agribusiness industry by 10 percent
* provide comprehensive support to the target group
* to increase agricultural production by 10 to 15 percent, through Letsema/illima campaign
* increase agricultural trade by 10 to 15 percent.

This is a pro-poor programme which is focusing on farm dwellers and farm workers to enable them to participate and benefit from agriculture development in the country. We have already identified areas where the land need is greatest and where evictions on farms have been common. These are the areas where we will prioritise land acquisition for the poor.

In conclusion I would like to thank the officials of the SADC Secretariat, Department of Land Affairs, the International Relations desk of the Department of Agriculture, the South African Police Service and the National Intelligence for their valuable work as well as all those who were involved in ensuring that this meeting takes place.

Once more welcome to our beautiful land, welcome to South Africa!

Thank You

Issued by: Department of Land Affairs
27 March 2008