GOVERNMENT HEEDS NERPO’S CALL FOR THE DRASTIC REVIEW OF THE CURRENT LAND REFORM POLICY
24 Feb 2010
The National Emergent Red Meat Producers’ Organisation (NERPO) has expressed delight to government’s decisive move to drastically review the current land reform policy. At a seminar hosted by NERPO in Queenstown last week, to take stock of the land reform programme in its entirety, the Ministry of Rural Development and Land Reform announced that a green paper on review of the current reform policy would be tabled in Parliament soon, for approval. NERPO has over the years criticized government’s current system for its emphasis on statistics as opposed to the system’s ability to impact positively to productivity and sustainability of the agricultural land.
“Before, during and after the Land Summit that was organized by government in 2005, we continued to challenge government on various aspects of land reform policy with a view to ensure our land reform programme impacted positively to productivity of agricultural land. In our view, government has heeded our call by opting to review the land reform policy. It was important for government to provide effective and sustainable post-settlement support programme, to beneficiaries of land reform while carefully allocating land to beneficiaries who are interested to farm on such land for commercial purposes” reacted Aggrey Mahanjana, Group Managing Director of NERPO
Supported by the willing sellers of the agricultural land from the Red Meat Producers Organisation (RPO) and Farmers Association in the Chris Hani District Municipality, NERPO emphasized that;
· Government needed to buy and transfer farms earmarked for land reform as a going concern, to maintain productivity and viability;
· The time it takes to finalize the land reform deals was detrimental to productivity and needed to be shortened;
· The willing buyer-will seller principle opened government to abuse by some unscrupulous farmers who require exorbitant and ridiculous prices while some buy such land for speculation purposes;
· Land beneficiaries needed to be carefully identified to ensure that agricultural land is preferable, allocated to those who want to farm on commercial basis; and
· Acquisition and ownership of land by Foreigners needed to be strictly regulated.
The Department has publicly conceded that the current system has deteriorated productivity of agricultural land and a more pragmatic model of land reform was needed to sustain productivity of the land, create jobs and change the livelihoods of land reform beneficiaries.
In its quest to root-out the detrimental aspects to productivity of the agricultural land, NERPO has engaged various stakeholders and these included the Secretary-General of the ruling party, Mr. Gwede Mantashe, the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and will soon be meeting with the ANC’s Economic Transformation Committee (ETC). (Copy of the letter is herewith enclosed)
During NERPO’s seminar on score card of the land reform programme, attendees had an opportunity to witness the realism faced by land reform beneficiaries on farms acquired through the system, most of which are purchased at a dilapidated state particularly in terms of their infrastructure. This is largely caused by the lengthy and bureaucratic process through which agricultural land is acquired.
NERPO is the official mouthpiece of the emerging livestock farmers who own about 40% of the country’s livestock but account for less than 5% of the red meat’s total market share. NERPO is determined to ensure that its members become major economic players in the commercial value chain of the red meat industry.
End.
Further Enquiries:
Aggrey Mahanjana
Group Managing Director
Cell : +27 (0) 82 556 7297
Tell : +27 (0) 12 348 8566
Email : gmd@nerpo.org.za
Website: www.nerpo.org.za
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