State land disposal policy will fail if it is not a transparent process

2 October 2020

While the Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza’s announcement yesterday that 700 000 ha of underutilised or vacant State land will be released for farming practises, we cannot move forward with this programme if current emerging farmers on State land do not have title deeds and security of tenure.

The DA has consistently called on government to release unused State land, but to do that while farmers currently farming on State land are unsure of their futures would be foolish.

We are aware of farmers that have received letters to “vacate the land” that they have been farming on for many years. The 2013 State land disposal policy was never properly implemented and left most farmers without valid lease contracts that forced them to rely on State support. These farmers are now under threat of losing their land because some official might decide that the land was “underutilised”.

The State has continuously failed to help these farmers with the most basic support, like renewing lease agreements in time so that they can get a production loan at a facility of choice. The agreements of offer to purchase were one-sidedly changed by the State, leaving many farmers frustrated and not able to use the land to full capacity.

The DA will write to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land reform and Rural Development, Zwelivelile Mandela, to ask for a meeting with Minister Didiza in order to fully understand the impact this new lease agreement will have on farmers currently on State land.

We need to get a transparent list of all farmers that already received letters to vacate the land.

How long have they been on the land?

Whether they had a valid lease agreement and for what term?

What support did they receive from the state?

What is the reason for them to vacate the land?

Who were involved in deciding that they must vacate the land?

What is the process to be followed when they would like to appeal?

What are the outcomes on the cases already referred to the minister?

Should they be asked to vacate, who will receive the land?

The State land disposal process could only work if a transparent process is followed, something that is not currently the case.

As it stands, the Minister’s announcement does not bode well for the farmers currently farming State land, or those unfortunate enough to have future entanglements with the Minster and her Department.

Issued by Annette Steyn, DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, 2 October 2020