ANC SUPPORTS NEW MEASURES TO TACKLE LAND REFORM

8 May 2015

THE ANC study on land reforms wishes to state its unequivocal support to a raft of new measures and policies that have been announced by the Rural Development and Land Reform Minister, Gugile Nkwinti, to tackle the key issue of land reform in our country.

In his budget vote debate, the Minister Nkwinti has announced that the department of land reform and rural development will this year introduce the Regulation of Landholdings Bill for processing and consideration by parliament.

The bill, in the main, will introduce land ceilings and prohibit land ownership by foreign nationals within our country.

The bill will stipulate clearly what size of land can be owned by various types of farmers, namely small-scale, medium scale and large scale farmers.

We welcome this bold step by the department, which is firmly in in line with the governing party’s manifesto on the need to expedite land reform and ensure that land ownership begins to reflect the racial profile of South Africa.

For too long, land ownership has been dominated by a minority section of the population and in some instances it has been in the hands of foreign nationals, who had not used it to advance the socio-economic needs of the country.

It is also important to note that the limitations on land ownership are not peculiar to South African as such policies are already a standard practice in several countries in Europe and Latin America where the average farm sizes are actually much smaller than what the policies announced by Minister Nkwinti provide for.

Therefore as the ANC we do not agree with the argument that says the Regulation of Landholdings Bill will be harmful to foreign direct investment or scare away foreign investors. As the Majority Party in this Parliament, we are looking forward to interacting with communities the length and breadth of this country to hear their views when the proposed Bill comes before Parliament for its processing and consideration.

With regard to the rural economy, as the ANC we are encourage that the department has taken concrete steps to transform the economies of rural areas through the implementation of the R2 billion Agri Parks programme in 44 district municipalities across the country.

The Agri-Parks seek to stimulate rural economies and improve living conditions in such communities through both subsistence and commercial farming enterprise, with 70% of such establishments owned by local communities.

As the ANC we are pleased by these progressive developments, which are a direct and concrete expression of what we have committed to with our people in the Manifesto and the National Development Plan.

Statement issued by Phumzile Ngwenya-Mabila, ANC Study Group on Rural Development and Land Reform, May 8 2015