Chapter 8 Quadrant 2: Securing rights, enabling social, institutional and capacity development
2 Current situation
2.4 Capacity development and training
2.4.1 Land reform participants
The CASE report (Diako et al. 2005) assessed the status quo of 178 settled land restitution claims with a developmental component. The report found that out of the 178 projects, claimant groups on 127 projects had received no training at all. Given that the report does not clearly distinguish between training, extension advice and other PSS services, this finding is open to interpretation. However, if taken at face value the finding starkly indicates the generally low level of support being provided.

Table 8.1: Training to Restitution projects


The CASE report also found that:
  • technical assistance that was reportedly provided to the 177 assessed projects was totally inadequate;
  • officials from the RLCC and other relevant government departments do not have the necessary skills to provide adequate technical assistance; and
  • in 60% of the assessed projects, beneficiaries claimed that a lack of skills contributed to the failure to attain their developmental aims (particularly in agriculture and tourism).

The trend identified by the CASE report is corroborated by the CSIR (2005), the Commonage review (DLA 2005) and LRAD review (Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs 2003). In a review of 50 projects in the Free State during 2003, Swanepoel and Stroebel (2004) concluded that:

  • Agriculture officials who have to assist community projects generally have an inadequate understanding of essential concepts such as commercialisation, co-ordination, beneficiaries, the mainstream economy, gender issues and small farmer development.
  • There seems to have been no emphasis on learning in the projects. This implies a lack of reflection on progress and achievements by project participants and managers.
  • There is an urgent need for appropriate training. No monitoring systems for this purpose seem to be in place in any of the projects.

The evidence shows that very often current approaches to capacity development and training are not based on an assessment of claimant skills and experience. It also appears that training and capacity development are not closely linked to the competencies, finance and management systems required to implement the business plan. They are often conceptualised in the form of stand-alone, add-on courses.

As might be anticipated, there is a major gap with respect to management skills. It is clear that the majority of land reform beneficiaries have a lack of formal education and skills. This deficit cannot be addressed simply by sending people on generic short courses provided by established institutions. It will require ongoing, on-farm training and support to assist claimants to deal with the business and management issues of the day and the identification of young people to undergo specialist tertiary education if land reform is to make a lasting impact and projects are to have intergenerational continuity.