Huh?

Dear Minister Didiza,

Unlike the Freedom Front, the Democratic Alliance and AgriSA, I support government's desire to redistribute agricultural land. In my opinion it is vital for our long term stability that as many people as possible who were dispossessed under apartheid get their land back, and from a moral standpoint this only seems fair. I am also fully behind government's plans to transform the agricultural sector and build up a black farming class.

It is for this reason that I was distressed today to learn that communal farming projects at some seventy or so farms bought by the Limpopo government for R100 million under a Land Acquisition Grant Programme have collapsed due to lack of skills and funds. It would be bad enough if this were an isolated case but unfortunately this sort of thing has happened time and time again in various similar initiatives around the country. However, I suppose as Minister of Land Affairs this isn't exactly news to you.

I was wondering if perhaps you could explain why government goes to all the trouble and expense of putting people back on the land, but fails to provide the crucial, basic element of training, skills transfer and funding to see these projects through to viability?

I hope, that as the media has reported, when you address the Limpopo issue tomorrow, you will explain why your department has overlooked one of the most important factors of successful agricultural land redistribution because I would sincerely like to understand how this could have happened. I also hope that your department has come up with a plan to rectify the situation, and I will will follow tomorrow's announcement with interest.

Yours sincerely

A concerned and puzzled citizen

Comments

[Shaun]

You've got to feel sorry for those new farmers - placed on a farm with a lot of government fanfare, and then the government goes and sets them up to fail by not providing the proper training and support.

Really disappointing - they should find a way of getting (i.e. paying) the prior farmers - the ones who know the land best - to provide training and on going support.

[James Clark]

It is very unfortunate.

These are reasons quoted by the DA and others against land reform, by the way.

Land reform cannot become viable unless the beneficiaries know how to farm... it's only logical. If the government taught them, it would be great. Shaun's idea of getting the old farmers to teach them sounds like an idea to me.

[Bronwyn]

The whole land reform issue is extremely complex as I'm sure you are both aware. The old farmer idea is a good one in theory, but if the government came along and expropriated my house for a quarter of its market value and then offered me a couple of rands to teach the new occupants how to look after it, I'd tell them where to shove their money.

The farmer's don't want to give up their land, understandably so, and so far they have demonstrated a complete lack of willingness to come to the party and participate in finding meaningful solutions to the dilemma.

The other big problem is on who decides the market value of the land? It's nice to think that the farmers would get a fair market value but who decides what fair is? On the one hand the farmers inflate the price to outrageously high levels, on the other, government wants to pay as little as they can get away with. There is also the argument that says the farmers got the land in the first place at ridiculously low prices due to heavy government subsidies and the fact that they only had to compete with other white land owners and not the full population as black people weren't allowed to own land, so maybe it's just too bad if they don't get full market value now?

I don't have the answers, but there are a lot of good land policy experts in the country that together with the local communities, the farmers and government should be able to find an equitable solution that won't adversely affect our capacity to produce and export food.