Address by Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs Ms Lulu Xingwana, Budget Vote Speech at the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Cape Town

Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces
Honourable Members of the National Council of Provinces
Members of the Executive Councils in the various provinces
Mayors and councillors
Honourable guests
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen

Over a century ago, Charlotte Makgomo Mannya Maxeke boldly embarked on a campaign to mobilise Africans, especially African women in rural areas to fight for freedom and women's emancipation. She attained academic advancement when such opportunities were prohibited for Africans, when she became the first African to qualify with a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree.

With education, she introduced new advanced strategies and programmes to fight poverty, hunger and deprivation. She lead the way for African women to organise themselves in progressive structures so that they can manage their own lives and those of their communities. She pioneered and led the Bantu Women's League which was the forerunner of the African National Congress Women's League to fight against colonialism and oppression in our country. She organised training and community development programmes, for church and rural women under Zenzele Women's Groups.

Today, we are honoured to have her great-granddaughter Makgoro Mannya amongst us. She has taken the baton leading other women in primary agriculture production and agro-processing, making it possible for other women to follow on with ease. She is a farmer in Tzaneen, Limpopo producing avocado, guava, litchi, mango and fresh vegetables. Her company exports avocadoes to the European Union (EU), guava and atchaar to Japan, sells vegetables to the fresh markets in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Furthermore, the company exports vegetables to Botswana.

Her company also runs Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) and HIV and AIDS programmes on the farm to improve literacy skills and health awareness among farm workers. The company is 100% black female owned. In renewing our pledge to build a better life for our people, I am also carrying on and continuing from where my predecessor, Minister Thoko Didiza, left off. In the years 2004/05, 2005/06 Comrade Thoko started the roll-out of Comprehensive Agriculture Support Programme (CASP), initiated LandCare, implemented Land Reform for Agricultural Development Sub-programme (LRAD), AgriBEE and Micro Agricultural Financial Scheme of South Africa (Mafisa), aligning the national programmes with provincial programmes and budgets.

Our government dealt with many teething problems ranging from administration of CASP funds; lack of harmony between LRAD and CASP mechanisms; inadequate progress reporting by provinces; lack of capacity to social group dynamics faced by some projects.

Determined to overcome these challenges and deliver on our mandate, between 2004/05 and 2006/07 the government successfully rolled-out almost 2 500 projects supporting over 167 000 beneficiaries.

From this foundation, we have declared that "Umhlaba awungalali." Through Ilima or Letsema and in the spirit of vukuzenzele we have commenced to intensify our support through irrigation systems, canals, dams, construction of dairy structures, stock handling watering facilities as well as dipping tanks so that family farmers should succeed in their farming activities. This year, we will roll out 786 projects to benefit an additional 60 000 family farmers.

We are trying to ensure that the dead assets in the hands of our people such as land and livestock generate income and jobs, through animal massification by means of improved and increased production, nutrition and genetic improvement. To further maximise the use of land while also responding to the global need for renewable energy, we have completed a draft strategy for crop production to feed into the national bio-fuel strategy. The strategy estimates a 10 million ton crop production from three million cultivated hectares per growing season, of which two million hectares will be based in the former homelands.

We have identified suitable areas to pilot crop production for bio-fuel crop feedstock in OR Tambo Municipality in the Eastern Cape, Mkhanyakude Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, Gert Sibande municipality in Mpumalanga, Bushbuckridge and the Qwaqwa Rural Development Node in the Free State. We will ensure that bio-fuel crop production should not be at the expense of food security, but seek to stimulate the creation of new jobs, new economic opportunities and new entrepreneurs especially in the communal lands and rural areas.

We have started to resuscitate ailing agriculture settlement projects and have witnessed a positive turnaround. We have invested R64 million into the tea estates in Tshivhase and Mukumbani in Limpopo. Our tea plantations produce the finest quality tea worldwide. Investing in a refurbished processing factory, settlement of out-grower farmers, tree planting and rejuvenation, packing and distribution facilities will improve production. It has already created over 2 000 sustainable jobs. Let's drink this Proudly South African tea!

This is one of the many tea plantations that we are busy reviving. Other tea plantations will follow in other provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. One of the 77 troubled land reform projects in Limpopo is the Mamahlola Communal Property Association. This 3 500 hectares (ha) land produces mango, banana, litchi, avocado, macadamia, citrus, guava and peach. More than 500 hectares of the land are leased to Mondi for the plantation of blue gum trees. Over the past 18 months, the project was placed under efficient management, the fruits are in production and are being exported once more, job losses were avoided, 207 permanent jobs have been created with an additional 100 seasonal jobs.

With the support from CASP, the Mamahlola project has replanted 145 hectares of bananas, placed 280 hectares under irrigation and piped 4 kilometres of channels. Next in the line of this resuscitation of the ailing projects will be the dairy farms in Alexandria and Ncera Farms. This is a critical industry of our sector particularly in the rural areas where milk plays an important role in health and nutrition. To correct the dairy issues, my Ministry has undertaken to urgently seek an audience with the industry to address this matter.

Chairperson, time is a resource we do not have. Towards the end of 2006 we adopted Operation Gijima to fast-track delivery of services. By the end of July, we believe that the AgriBEE Charter will be gazetted, thus paving the way for a new era that will see the transformation and accelerated growth of our sector. By the end of the past financial year, the Commission on Land Restitution has settled 93% of the 79 696 claims lodged. We still have to settle an outstanding 5 279 rural claims.

Chairperson, the country is waiting for this matter to be finalised. We are putting together all our resources and energy to finalise the remaining difficult case that made up seven percent all claims lodged in order to meet this tight deadline March 2008. We have delivered on the biggest land claim ever settled in South Africa to-date, the Tenbosch properties with a total value of R1,1 billion involving 32 387 hectares of land. Most of the land is currently used for commercial farming.

Another significant land claim is the St Lucia Wetland Park, a world heritage site. The settlement comprises seven land restitution claims by the local communities of 1 825 families on the 22 908 ha of land. The State has committed R89 million towards the finalisation of this claim. Twenty-five percent of this amount will be allocated to the claimants for development. "Lixoshiwe'ke ikati eziko lapho!"

The Commission has always been committed to negotiated settlements. However, in some instances where negotiations drag on indefinitely, then the strategy to shorten the process is the implementation of expropriation after a period of six months. To date one expropriation has been successfully implemented at Pniel Community Land Claim. Let me congratulate the household members of the Popela Community in whose favour the highest court of the land, the Constitutional Court, has ruled that they are entitled to restitution. We have always understood that the individual farmer acted as though they were apartheid state that dispossessed people and turned them into labour tenants.

These people lived as a community and the dispossession divided them and reduced them to scattered individuals. This judgement confirms that all victims of such removals are legally entitled to restitution.

We have revised the funding mechanisms for the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development to make sure that we are able to deliver at scale in our efforts to meet the target of redistributing 30% of white agricultural land by 2014. To accelerate delivery we will be applying new land acquisition models such as the Pro-active land acquisition strategy and the development of new land acquisition models tailor-made to respond to the needs of our clients.

We will also introduce the Area Based Land Reform Planning. This is a fundamental tool for the integration and alignment of land reform to the strategic priorities of the provinces, municipalities and other sectors. Over the last eight months, I have reflected on the option of establishing a Special Purpose Vehicle that could accelerate the pace of land redistribution.

Chairperson there is no time to lose. My ministry, in consultation with other relevant ministries and stakeholders, is busy working on this vehicle which will be a "one-stop-shop" for all land delivery and agricultural support services. The implementation of the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will illustrate a success of the alignment of the two departments. Likewise, we do not have time to be caught unawares by natural disasters.

We have refined an Early Warning Information system, conducted drought assessments to feed into the National Disaster Management Advisory Forum, continuously study climate change and its possible impacts on agriculture and also developed appropriate interventions to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change. In partnership with the commercial farming sector, we will review the sector plan, hold a one-day session with the presidency and chart the way forward. Despite various measures put in place by government to improve the working conditions and tenure security of farm dwellers, we are still witnessing evictions in some parts of the country, whether they are legal or illegal.

Surely, we have progressed far into our democracy and define ourselves as a humane society to allow women and children to be thrown out in the open where they sometimes have to spend the night, in the cold of winter. Equally, as a nation we condemn all forms of violence including farm killings. At my recent Lekgotla, we decided to implement radio awareness communication campaign, especially directed at farm dwellers to inform them about their rights and what to do when they are faced with evictions and any other unfair treatment.

This campaign would also seek to foster peace and stability within rural communities. Chairperson, women have always played an important and leading role in the sector. However, they have not yet had an organised voice to represent and advance their interest in the sector. Through the formation of Women in Agriculture and Rural Development (WARD), the rural women now have that voice. In April this year, South Africa hosted the Fourth World Congress of Rural Women where over 2 000 delegates from across the globe, they carved their destiny in the agricultural sector and declared "Nothing about us without us."

Similarly, the Ministry seeks to include the youth in our development programme. To this end, we are planning a youth summit on land and agriculture for later in the year. As part of the preparatory process, there will be winter school session and a series of career-orientated seminars. The ultimate objective is to hold sub-regional Youth Farmer and Female Farmer Awards. Chairperson, I stated before you my vision, objectives and targets for the next two years. I need your support to achieve this vision, to fight poverty, create employment and move a step closer towards contributing to prosperity in the agriculture sector and thus renew our pledge to build a better life for all our people.

Without your support, I will not be able to accomplish the above vision. You are the vital link between the national and provincial legislatures, connecting with the constituencies as you take parliament to the people and monitor programmes as implemented in the provinces.

Masibaleke ixesha lixhatshwe yinja!
Nako ga e emele motho!
Gare matheng!

Let me thank my Deputy Minister, Advocate Dirk du Toit for his unwavering support, all the MECs for Agriculture for their co-operation, the leadership in the entire value chain of the agricultural sector, for their contribution and participation towards the success of this sector, Director Generals of both departments and their dedicated staff, my Gijima team, staff in my office, the Chief Land Claims Commissioner and his team, CEOs of the state entities as well as the HODs of provincial departments of agriculture.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Agriculture
6 June 2007