Feet on the Earth or Head in the Clouds? The State Plans Our Agricultural Future: Part III - Can the State Capacity Requirements for Heavy Regulation be Met?
The third brief in the series deals with the State capacity requirements in the proposed framework.
The first brief in this series set out definitions of agricultural land and outlined the regulatory framework contained in the Preservation and Development of Agricultural Land Framework Bill. The second brief set out the massive information requirements of the proposed system. This brief will deal with state capacity requirements. All three levels of government will be involved. Let us start from the bottom up.
Municipalities. Every municipality must incorporate all agricultural land in their municipal spatial development plans. In the process, they must incorporate the classification of land formulated by the national and provincial departments. Each municipality must establish a Municipal Internal Technical Committee to deal with the province, monitor changes in land use, evaluate policies and strategies for sustainable agriculture and consider and make recommendations regarding for the rezoning and subdivision of agricultural land.
The recommendations must be made in the light of the municipality’s integrated development plan, the local economic development plan, the land use management scheme and any other local planning framework. A municipality must also consult with traditional authorities if traditional land is involved. Applications must be dealt with quickly. If an application is not dealt with in twenty days from receipt of an application from the province, the province is entitled to disregard its inputs and execute the municipal functions.
Provinces. Every province must, with the assistance of the national department, implement a coherent approach to planning and development of agricultural land and its optimal use. In so doing, it must establish systems for agricultural land use planning and zoning, regulating agricultural land conversions and processing applications for farmers.