Land reform a 'dismal failure'
2005-07-14 10:41
Nelspruit - Civil society organisations have described land reform in Mpumalanga as a "dismal failure" as only three percent of the province's land has been transferred to blacks and 90% of agricultural projects have collapsed.
Three organisations - The Rural Action Committee (Trac), Land Access Movement of South Africa (Lamosa) and the Mpumalanga Land and Agriculture Committee (MLAC) - collectively criticised the government during Mpumalanga's Land Summit in Nelspruit this week.
They listed a skimpy land reform budget, flawed legislation, lack of skills within land affairs as the main contributors to the failure of land reform in the region.
"The current land reform programme has failed to contribute towards economic growth in the province, specifically in terms of creating sustainable livelihoods, rural employment and poverty alleviation," reads the organisations' presentation.
"[We] conclude that the government's current macro-economic policy does not consider the rural poor to be a driving force for economic growth, rather they are considered to be a pool of cheap labour capable of being replaced by immigrants or machines.
"[They are also] considered as a drain on the state's resources in need of free water, [social grants], education and medical services."
The organisations warned that agricultural enterprises that are transferred to blacks were most likely to fail as 75% of South Africa's commercial farmers were insolvent, unless production models on those farms were changed.
Lack of farm management and marketing skills by land beneficiaries, and access to credit pushed the failure rate up to the current 90%.
The organisations also urged the government to consider setting up protective tariffs, export or production subsidies and price-stabilising mechanisms for farmers.
"Furthermore, the state should consider what is fair to our farmers in the face of continued state subsidies and protective tariffs in Western Europe and the US," they say.
They also warned that government would still fail to speed up land reform if it did not increase the budget and stopped over-relying on the willing-buyer willing-seller model.
The organisations said they were aware that government could not abandon the market-driven approach without amending the constitution.
They acknowledged that deviation from the market-driven approach would scare-off overseas investors.
But legislation should allow for expropriation to occur in all land reform programmes, they said.