Chaotic ‘State land redistribution’ resulting in intimidation of productive farmers
3 February 2021
Following the announcement by the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD), Thoko Didiza, that 700 000 hectares of State land will be released for agricultural purposes, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has received distress calls from productive farmers complaining that this announcement was now being used by departmental officials to intimidate them into vacating their farms.
On reviewing some of the reported cases, the DA was surprised to see that farms of some of the farmers being victimized by DALRRD officials are not even listed for redistribution under the 700 000 hectare scheme.
To stop this intimidation, the DA will write to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Mandla Mandela, and request that the agenda item on ‘the release of State land’, that is to deliberated on next week, be expanded to include all land that is currently listed for land reform purposes. The DA has enough evidence that intimidation and corruption is taking place on currently occupied land that falls outside the 700 000 hectares announced by the Minister.
In addition, the DA letter to Chairperson Mandela will call on him to issue a directive that all Provinces furnish the Committee with the status of all land that falls under the ambit of the Department’s land reform programme. We need to know: