Land Affairs Dept Budget Vote 2002/2003, NCOP
Date: 20/06/2002
Source: Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs
Title: Didiza: Land Affairs Dept Budget Vote 2002/2003, NCOP
LAND AFFAIRS BUDGET VOTE SPEECH BY THE MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE
AND LAND AFFAIRS, MS THOKO DIDIZA, MP, National Council Of
Provinces, Cape Town, 20 June 2002
LAND AFFAIRS BUDGET VOTE
Chairperson
Honourable Members
Fellow South Africans
We are meeting here today at a time when current trends and the
overall outlook for the future in terms of our delivery on our
mandate for land reform, are beginning to show positive results. We
are meeting when our efforts in contributing towards pushing back
the frontiers of poverty, in response to the call made by the
President in his State of the Nation Address, are beginning to bear
fruit. We see a clear and relatively even pattern of delivery in all
our nine Provinces, as measured in terms of expenditure of our
allocated budget and an increasing number of projects of good
quality. These have been achieved through the comprehensive
re-engineering and simplification of our procedures, as well as the
decentralisation of our delivery mechanisms, which, as we indicated
during our Budget Vote Speech to this House last year, were critical
and necessary interventions in our quest to increase delivery.
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Chairperson, we have responded positively and effectively to the
call made by our fellow citizens to increase the pace of delivery;
and we have not ended there, we have improved the quality of our
delivery, as demonstrated both in terms of restitution claims
settled and redistribution projects finalised in the previous year.
In the case of restitution, we have kept our promise to focus on
rural claims, thus increasing our coverage of rural poor
communities. In terms of redistribution, we have, through the launch
of the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD)
sub-programme, brought in a new era where land redistribution is
part and parcel of agricultural development, thus addressing both
rural food security and income generation.
We stand ready to do even better in this new financial year. In
order to ensure that we keep the momentum started in the 2001/2002
financial year, we are making major strides in the areas of capacity
building and management of our human resources. In terms of
Restitution, we are looking forward to a more increased pace of
delivery as we move towards the finalisation of the exercise of
validating all claims. We also expect the delivery of LRAD to pick
up pace. As we go into the final phase of putting in place the
necessary legislation and policies, we expect more activity from the
very important area of Spatial Planning and Information. Most
importantly, we have, since the National Land Tenure Conference held
in November 2001 in Durban, taken decisive steps towards addressing
critical and difficult questions and begin to deliver at scale in
the area of land tenure reform, in both the communal and commercial
farming areas. Our framework for delivery is reflected clearly in
the multi-year Strategic Plan of the Department of Land Affairs,
which has been tabled before this House.
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LAND RESTITUTION PROGRAMME
Once again, Chairperson, the figures in respect of the
Restitution Programme show increased delivery. It is important to
highlight the fact that, whereas in the past year some provinces,
such as Mpumalanga, were lagging behind as the result of factors
that were brought to the attention of this House, the trend of
increased delivery is now the order of the day in all nine Provinces
of our country. The past year has seen not only a remarkably high
increase in the number of claims that have been processed; the
quality of restitution settlements is also improving. This is
demonstrated by the fact that the process has increasingly focused
on rural claims and as the result an increasing number of rural
claimants, many of whom are among the poorest and marginalised, has
benefited. I am sure Honourable Members can bear witness to the
fact, during the entire period from 1 April 2001 to 31 March 2002,
hand over ceremonies have taken place in virtually all provinces,
practically every week.
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At the end of March 2002, the Commission on Restitution of Land
Rights had settled 29 877 claims out of a total of 68 878 that have
been lodged. A total of 332 243 individuals representing 62 245
households have benefited from 430 988 hectares were involved.
The Limpopo Province has settled no less than eight large
community claims, all of which are in rural areas. In this province,
in the true South African spirit, a great- grandson of Mr Cooksley,
Mr P F Menne, assisted the Mavhungeni community in the gathering of
evidence to support their restitution case. This is one of the cases
that we have seen in several other parts of our country, where,
white farmers are entering into joint ventures with blacks emerging
farmers, thus contributing towards laying solid foundations for
agricultural development.
The Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal have distinguished themselves
with settling claims covering the largest number of hectares to
date, namely 221 759 ha and 61 691 ha respectively, most of which
consists of high quality land. Here too the white farmers have
pledged themselves to support the new black landowners, in the
spirit of reconciliation.
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The Northern Cape prides itself on having settled one of the
oldest and most complex land restitution claims, Majeng, by an order
of the Land Claims Court.
During the course of the past financial year, Mpumalanga, which
had got off to a relatively slow start in previous years, has also
made impressive progress. As a relatively new office, our RLCC
office in that Province is now making meaningful advances in
settling claims and accelerating the claims validation process, thus
laying the foundation for greater progress in the near future. As we
have said in the past, this Province, together with Limpopo, have
the largest proportion of claims, most of which are rural claims
involving agricultural land of good quality. We have committed
ourselves to speeding up the processing of these claims, so as to
ensure certainty and to unlock opportunities for development. These
two provinces thus remain a high priority for the ongoing validation
programme, as well as for support in terms of material and human
resources.
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Details of claims settled per province are as follows:
Province: Northern Cape
Claims: 410
Hectares: 221 759
Households: 3 783
Beneficiaries: 19 156
Province; KZN
Claims; 7 233
Hectares: 61 691
Households: 12 034
Beneficiaries; 70 015
Province: North West
Claims: 1 050
Hectares: 58 814
Households: 5 628
Beneficiaries: 44 614
Province: Limpopo
Claims: 508
Hectares: 28 874
Households: 6 660
Beneficiaries: 34 408
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Province: Eastern Cape
Claims: 9 222
Hectares: 27 101
Households; 18 431
Beneficiaries: 81 751
Province: Mpumalanga
Claims: 254
Hectares: 18 054
Households: 3 409
Beneficiaries: 15 054
Province: Free State
Claims: 1 147
Hectares: 5 339
Households: 914
Beneficiaries: 2 926
Province: Gauteng
Claims: 5 497
Hectares: 3 651
Households: 5 444
Beneficiaries: 28 204
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Province: Western Cape
Claims: 4 556
Hectares: 5 255
Households: 4 942
Beneficiaries: 36 115
TOTAL
Claims: 29 877
Hectares: 430 988
Households: 62 245
Beneficiaries: 332 243
The following claims have been settled throughout the country
since February 2001, many of which are rural claims which involving
substantial numbers of people as beneficiaries:
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GAUTENG AND NORTH WEST:
Klipgat restoration (North West), Rural community.
Kinde Estate restoration (North West), Family - Rural.
Willem Klopperville financial compensation (Gauteng) - Urban
Eastwood financial compensation (Gauteng) - Urban.
MPUMALANGA
Boomplaats restoration, Community - Rural
Kalkfontein restoration, Community -Rural
Steelpoortpark, Community -Rural
Alverton Community -Rural
Lissabon Community _ Rural
Frischgewaagd community - Rural
KWAZULU-NATAL
Mbila-Mabaso Restoration, Community - Rural
Gujini community restoration of 11,000 ha of rural land.
Esibongweni Community Claim - Rural
Kameelkop Community Claim - Rural
Cato Manor Community Clam - Urban
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FREE STATE AND NORTHERN CAPE
Marabastad (financial compensation) Community - Urban
Majeng community - Rural
WESTERN CAPE
Langebaan restoration, Family - Urban
Knysna, Community - Urban
Tramway Road Community - Urban
Ndabeni Community Claim - Urban
LIMPOPO PROVINCE
New Pietersburg financial compensation, Community - Urban
Gertrudesburg Community Claim - Rural
Kranspoort community - Rural
Munghezi, Ximanga and Mavhungeni - rural claims
Manavhela rural community claim
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EASTERN CAPE
Gwiji restoration, Family - Rural
Dwesa-Cwebe restoration, Communities - Rural
Makhoba restoration of 20 commercial farms
East Bank - Urban
Chairpersons, the trends, which are illustrated by these data,
underpin our commitment to addressing rural poverty and to the
opening up of opportunities for agricultural and rural development.
The Commission has set out a plan to validate 33 290 land claims
by December 2002 and to acknowledge all valid claims by March 2003.
Invalid claims will also be dismissed by March 2003. As we speak,
approximately 14 000 claims have been validated through this
exercise.
The following number of claims has been prioritised on a
Provincial basis to be settled by end of March 2003:
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- Eastern Cape: 2 123 claims
- KwaZulu-Natal: 3 244 claims
- Western Cape: 54077 claims
- Gauteng & North West: 2170 claims
- Mpumalanga: 978 claims
- Limpopo: 335 claims
- Free State: 400 claims
- Northern Cape: 500 claims
Total: 15157 Claims
Chairperson, we have on several occasions in the past highlighted
the importance of ensuring that our land delivery processes through
the Restitution Programme promote the establishment of sustainable
settlements and economic activity on this land. This is what is
generally referred to as post-settlement support. We acknowledge
that the critical element for a successful post-settlement support
programme is effective co-ordination among various government
departments and agencies, as well as civil society and the private
sector and as such steps are to be undertaken in this regard. As a
demonstration of our commitment to this programme, the Department of
Land Affairs is in the process of setting up a Post-Settlement
Support Co-ordination Unit that will deal with issues relating to
all three elements of the land reform programme. The Commission on
Restitution of Land Rights has also taken the initiative of entering
into a Tri-lateral Co-operation Agreement with the Land Bank and the
National Development Agency, which was signed on 12 April 2002 at
Makhoba, in the presence of President Thabo Mbeki.
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LAND REFORM PROGRAMME
Labour Tenants:
Chairperson, we are currently engaged in the process of
investigating and validating 16 3643 Labour Tenant claims that have
been lodged in the wake of a campaign that we launched in the year
2000. Additional resources have been allocated in order to deal with
these claims.
To date, 2 500 out of 12 971 labour tenant claims have been
settled in Mpumalanga Province, which together with KwaZulu/Natal,
have the largest proportion of the claims. The Mpumalanga claims
include claims from areas such as the East Vaal region (Wakkerstroom,
Ermelo, Piet Retief) where a total of 2 348 claims have been
settled. In Wakkerstroom alone 400 have been settled.
A total of 2 654 out of 6 000 claims have been settled thus far
in KwaZulu-Natal, 472 of these in the Vryheid district alone.
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Chairperson, the Labour Tenants programme is one of the most
challenging programmes because of the competing rights on the land
subject to a claim. Continuous discussions between AgriSA, the
Landless People's Movement, the National Land Committee and
government are taking place in order to address problems related to
labour tenants.
Farm Workers
Issues of security of tenure for farm workers are an ongoing
matter that is receiving attention. Some of these communities have
benefited from transfer of land, which has been acquired for them in
terms of the Redistribution Programme. The other matter that
obviously presents us with a challenge is related to working
conditions on farms which sometimes, if not most of the time,
impacts on farm workers' tenure security. We are happy to say that
the continuous engagement between organised agriculture and the
Ministry of Labour and the Department of Land Affairs has produced a
protocol in order to manage some of the labour conditions on farms.
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Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development:
One of the highlights of the year 2001/2002 was the launch of the
Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD), a
sub-programme of the Land Redistribution Programme, in Nkomazi,
Mpumalanga on 13 August 2001. The Nkomazi project involved 241 LRAD
grant beneficiaries. The main objective of the LRAD, in line with
the Department's mission to provide access to land and to extend
rights in land to the previously disadvantaged communities, is to
redistribute white-owned agricultural land to blacks.
Despite having started only in October 2001, it is fair, now, to
point out the fact that the department has ambitiously committed
itself to implementing this programme. Actual expenditure for the
LRAD Programme was relatively slow but overwhelming commitments,
both in collaboration with Land Bank and at Provincial Land Reform
Offices, have been recorded and implementation thereof will
definitely be felt and visible during this financial year.
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Progress to date on the implementation of LRAD will indicate that
4 823 beneficiaries have received the LRAD grant that has delivered
about 100 000 ha of land amounting to about 164 farms. There are
also 36 beneficiaries who have received a combination of grant and
loan component from the land bank with the delivery of 2 203 ha of
land.
Land Redistribution for Housing/Settlement
The Settlement and Land Acquisition Grant has been used to target
communities who require land for housing. In support of the Urban
Renewal Programme 20 154 ha of land were delivered to vulnerable
communities and individuals. For example, a farm of 1 000 ha worth
R4 million was acquired for residents of Alexandra in Gauteng. In
the Western Cape R8 million was committed to acquire 80 ha of land
for resettlement of the victims of the Cape Flats flood disaster. In
addition, 8 300 ha have been acquired comprising of 8 000 ha in
Mpumalanga and 300 ha in the Free State.
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In the true spirit of pushing back the frontiers of poverty, 6
138 ha of land was delivered to landless people and this consisted
of 13 projects which benefited 61 women and 140 farm workers.
The improved spending that we have realised in the land reform
programme has been the result of a strategic focus that we have been
working from as a Department, more effective financial management,
as well as streamlining of implementation processes and systems to
avoid duplication and delay.
Overall, Chairperson, I am happy to announce that our overall
expenditure, excluding advances effected to other implementing
agencies, stood at 97% as at 31 March 2002 and comparatively
speaking to the last financial year it is a resounding improvement
and success for land reform implementation.
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Provincial MECs administer 669 000 ha of state agricultural land.
They disposed of 47 978 ha or 7% in terms of the Powers of Attorney
they hold. This land was disposed of through outright sale, whilst
450 000 are currently held through leases most of whose holders have
an option to buy. A detailed consultative process is planned to
address areas of concern. The Department of Land Affairs administers
state agricultural land to the extent of 500 000 ha. During the
2001/2002 financial year the Department disposed of 184 949 ha,
which represents 37% of the state agricultural land that it is
currently administering.
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In order to confirm rights in land 486 cases of Extension of
Security of Tenure were reported and various forms of interventions
were effected to prevent evictions. Through five hundred
registrations in Thaba Nchu de facto ownership has been converted to
de jure. A s a contribution to the implementation of the Integrated
Sustainable Rural Development Programme (ISRDP) a total of 8
projects were identified in the following provinces: Eastern Cape,
Mpumalanga and Western Cape with 2 projects each, and the Free State
and North West Provinces with one each.
Another critical achievement was the hosting of the National Land
Tenure Conference by the Department in November 2001 that resulted
in the participation of a variety of stakeholders, including
traditional authorities, organised agriculture and communities. Key
issues that were debated were land administration in communal areas
and the finalisation of the Communal Land Rights Bill and the need
to improve tenure security for farm dwellers on private land.
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The Communal Land Rights Bill whose gazetting and enactment are
expected in the third quarter of 2002 has been drafted. A
cross-functional National Review Team examining the Communal
Property Associations has been initiated while Provincial teams were
set up to oversee the processes in their respective provinces.
As set out in the Departmental Strategic Plan, our Provincial
Land Reform Offices have made the following plans for the 2002/2003
financial year:
LRAD Implementation
For the year 2002/ 2003 with regards to LRAD in the Provinces
this is how we envisage to deal with this programme. In the Eastern
Cape 30 farms will be acquired which translate to 30 projects. These
will be in the extent of 10 000 ha to benefit 300 beneficiaries. 10
00 ha will be allocated to marginalised groups being women, youth
and the disabled.
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- In Gauteng 20 farms will be purchased. These farms translate
to 1 100 ha of land which will be allocated to 120 beneficiaries,
100 ha will be targeted for marginalised groups;
- In the Free State we are targeting 107 farms which will be 22
111 ha in extent and benefit 420 beneficiaries, 552 ha will be
allocated to the marginalised groups;
- In KwaZulu-Natal 12 farms will be acquired, in the extent of
18 455 ha, earmarked for 1 087 beneficiaries. 150 ha will be
allocated to marginalised groups;
- Mpumalanga will acquire 45 farms in the extent of 18 750 ha to
benefit 375 beneficiaries. A total of 4 687 ha will be allocated
to marginalised groups;
- Nothern Cape is planning to acquire 30 farms, in the extent of
15 000 ha which will benefit 100 beneficiaries. 750 ha will be
allocated to marginalised groups;
- Limpopo (Northern Province) will acquire 32 farms to the
extent of 20 947 ha to benefit 306 beneficiaries. About 100 ha
will be transferred to marginalised groups;
- North West is targeting 25 farms in the extent 4 000 ha to
benefit 1 300 beneficiaries, of these a total of 100 ha will be
transferred to marginalised groups;
- Western Cape is targeting 7 farms which will translate to 9
projects in the extent of 2 500 ha. These will benefit 200
beneficiaries. A total of 300 ha will go to women, youth and the
disabled.
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Land for Settlement
- Free State is targeting 69 farms, which translate to 300 ha to
benefit 3 800 households, 8 ha will be allocated to marginalised
groups;
- Eastern Cape is planning to have 3 projects which will benefit
6 000 households;
- Gauteng is planning to acquire 14 farms for 13 projects in the
extent of 2 142 ha to benefit 400 households, 300 ha will be
allocated to women, youth and the disabled;
- KwaZulu-Natal is planning to acquire 12 farms for 5 projects
in the extent of 20 481 ha to benefit 8 838 households, 2 800 ha
will go to marginalised groups;
- Mpumalanga will acquire 11 farms for 7 projects in the extent
of 6 800 ha to benefit 300 households 1 700 ha will be allocated
to marginalised groups;
- Northern Cape will acquire 6 farms for 5 projects in the
extent of 8 500 ha to benefit 200 households, 212 ha will be
transferred to marginalised groups;
- Northern Province will acquire a single farm in the extent of
300 ha to benefit 100 households, 75 ha will be allocated to
women, youth and the disabled;
- North West will acquire 3 farms for 12 projects in the extent
of 300 ha to benefit 1 000 households, 25 ha will be transferred
to women, youth and the disabled;
- Western Cape will acquire 3 farms for 3 projects in the extent
of 20 ha to benefit 300 households, 20 ha will be allocated to
women, youth and the disabled.
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Other Redistribution Projects (Commonage & Farm Equity Projects)
- Eastern Cape is planning to transfer 5 farms to give projects
which will be in the extent of 3 800 ha to benefit 300 households,
380 ha will be earmarked for marginalised groups;
- Free State will acquire 4 farms for 4 projects. This will be
to the extent of 3 000 ha to benefit 30 households, 375 ha will be
transferred to women, youth and the disabled;
- Gauteng is targeting 2 farms for projects in the extent of 380
ha to be transferred to 40 beneficiaries, 100 ha are to be
allocated to marginalised groups;
- KwaZulu-Natal is planning to acquire 2 farms for 2 projects in
the extent of 400 ha to benefit 40 households; 30ha will be given
to marginalised groups;
- Mpumalanga plans to acquire 5 farms for 5 projects. The total
hectare will be 2 000. This will benefit 60 households, 500 of
these will transferred to marginalised groups;
- Northern Cape is planning to acquire 8 farms for 8 projects.
The extent of the farm will be 18 000ha. It will benefit 150
households, 750 ha from the total number of hectares will be
transferred to marginalised groups;
- Northern Province will acquire 3 farms for 3 projects to the
extent of 284 ha which will benefit 50 households, 71ha will be
given to women, youth and the disabled;
- North West is planning to acquire 3 farms for 3 projects. The
extent of these farms will be 1 000 ha, 50 households will benefit
and 25 ha will be transferred to marginalised groups;
- Western Cape has targeted 1 farm for a single project, which
is 200 ha in extent. This will benefit 25 households. 40 ha will
be allocated to marginalised groups.
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Land to be delivered to Labour Tenants and Farm Workers
- Eastern Cape plans to acquire 1 farm for 1 project that would
benefit 10 households;
- Free State will have 5 projects that will benefit 5
households;
- Gauteng will acquire 6 farms for 6 projects to benefit 10
households;
- KwaZulu-Natal will acquire 50 farms for 125 projects, which
will benefit 424 households;
- Mpumalanga will transfer 62 farms, which will translate to 62
projects and benefit 625 households;
- North West is planning to acquire 3 farms for 3 projects and
will be transferred to 90 households;
- Western Cape will acquire 3 farms for 2 projects and these
will be transferred to 100 households.
Land in Support of the Urban Renewal Programme
- Eastern Cape will acquire 1 farm, which will benefit 2 000
beneficiaries;
- Gauteng will also acquire 1 farm, which will be 1 000 ha in
extent and would benefit 1 500 households;
- KwaZulu-Natal is planning to have 2 projects which are 80 ha
in size to be transferred to 5 400 households;
- Northern Cape is planning 3 projects of 1 500 ha which will be
transferred to an unspecified number of households;
- North West is working at 1 project, which is 50 ha in size to
be transferred to 150 households;
- Western Cape will also have 1 project of 8 ha that will be
transferred to 150 households.
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LAND PLANNING AND INFORMATION
One of our major Branches, the Land Planning and Information
Branch, has of four (4) Chief Directorates. These Chief Directorates
offer professional and technical line functions in the fields of
Deeds Registration, Spatial Planning and Information, Cadastral
Surveys and Surveys and Mapping.
The main challenges facing the branch are closely related to the
technical and professional nature of their duties.
In order to address the critical shortage of qualified persons
from designated groups for employment equity, targeted training
exercises have been embarked upon in all these components. In the
Surveys & Mapping and Cadastral Surveys fields we are faced with the
critical challenge of lack of representivity, coupled with limited
success in recruiting people from the targeted groups. To counter
this, a special bursary scheme for Surveying and Geomatics has been
set up. In the current 2002 academic year, 38 students from the
targeted groups have been awarded bursaries to study at universities
or technikons. The number of bursaries will be increased over the
next few years.
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History was made in July 2001 when the first ever-African
Surveyor-General was appointed in Bloemfontein.
In the area of legislation, the following initiatives are
noteworthy.
- Land Use Management Bill, which will address issues which are
fundamental to the settlement patterns in the country and redress
past discriminatory measures imposed by apartheid settlement
patterns. The aim of this Bill is further to ensure uniformity in
the regulation of land use management in the country, in order to
redress the imbalances of the past and the fragmented planning
systems. Central to the Land Use Management Bill are the
following:
- The Spatial Information Bill, which is expected that this Bill
will be submitted to Parliament within this year. This Bill aims
to bridge the information gap in our society to benefit the
disadvantaged sections of our society, and to enhance access to
spatial information as a tool for effective governance and
development.
- The Planning Profession Bill, which seeks to replace the Town
and Regional Planners Act of 1984, which regulates the Profession
of Town and Regional Planners. The agenda pursued in the
introduction of a new Bill addresses certain major transformation
goals, such as ethical standards, representivity and legitimacy,
and access to the profession by historically disadvantaged
persons.
- Revision of Land Registration legislation in order to meet new
challenges that include the need to consolidate and rationalise
the discriminatory and diversified registration procedures created
under the previous political dispensation thus strengthening the
weaker security of title afforded to the majority of disadvantaged
people in the country. In order to meet these challenges, we
propose to apply e-commerce principles to facilitate electronic
registration.
- Outreach Programmes, which, in line with the Department's
Decentralisation Project (Mutingati), all the activities and
services of this branch will increasingly be decentralised to
ensure delivery at points of need.
- Support to Land Reform and Restitution, whereby the activities
of this branch are being re-engineered towards ensuring maximum
support to the Constitutional mandate of Land Reform and
Restitution. The Chief Directorate: Spatial Planning and
Information has completed a policy document on environmental
guidelines to enhance sustainability in Land Reform projects.
These guidelines seek to ensure the incorporation of environmental
planning into land reform and restitution programmes. The
guidelines were approved in April 2001.
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FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND CORPORATE SERVICES
The areas of financial and human resources management, in
particular expenditure management, and the decentralisation
programmes have seen great improvement over the past year.
We started the 2001/2002 financial year at a time when National
Treasury had just informed us that our expenditure pattern for land
reform implementation in the previous financial year had failed to
meet set benchmarks and in the process a substantial percentage was
rolled over. This called upon the Department to re-prioritise its
operations and our strategic plan for the year set new and
deliverable targets. The new management's leadership and strategic
focus is evident from the improved financial results of 94%
spending, which represents an increase of 27% from the previous
year's figures. Human Resource Management issues have equally been
prioritised, with a shaper focus being placed on capacity building.
Human Resource Development
During the past financial year the Departmental Human Resource
Development Plan was finalised and the Work Place Skills Plan was
submitted to Public Sector Education and Training Authority. The
Work Place Skills Plan will focus on Project Management, Labour
Relations, Adult Basic Education and Training and Management
Development Programmes to improve service delivery. 24 middle
managers from Land Reform and Restitution branches were sent to the
University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg for training in Land
Information Management, a post graduate diploma. Madam Speaker, we
hope this diploma will enhance the knowledge and skills of these
managers to meet the ever-demanding challenges of Land Reform. A
total number of 3 001 officials were trained by the Department in
the following disciplines:
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- Labour Relations
- Financial Management
- Service Delivery and Customer Care (Batho Pele)
- Policy and Knowledge Management
- Strategy into Action
- Provision of Access to Information Act
- Adult BASIC Education and Training
- Computer Training
Information Systems
To contribute to more effective management of information systems
the Department's databases were integrated. These databases had been
developed in isolation from each other, which led to data
fragmentation and duplication. Steps towards integrating these
disparate systems were achieved when the Restitution database and
the Land Reform databases were moved onto the same technical
platform. Data from the Restitution claims and Redistribution
projects can now be compared for the first time, providing a
powerful tool for an integrated approach to land reform.
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Another achievement is the successful completion of a
proof-of-concept GIS project to show that spatial data sets from a
variety of sources can be integrated dynamically and seamlessly to
provide planners with a single view of spatial data on one platform,
whether topographical, cadastral, meteorological, agricultural or
land ownership data. This was a major breakthrough, demonstrating
that intelligent data warehousing and latest generation GIS
technology can create spatial data layers dynamically from
source-data held in different formats, stored in different
platforms.
HIV/Aids Awareness
The Department has established nine Aids Committees and 86 of
these members received Peer Education Training. A total of 600 staff
members in the Department attended the Introduction to Aids Training
Course.
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CHALLENGES - LAND REFORM PROGRAMME
Our strategic focus is designed to meet head-on all the
challenges facing the Department with regards to improving the pace
of delivery and quality of projects and services rendered. Therefore
we have set the following areas as our challenges for the current
year and beyond:
- To widen the scope of our contribution towards the Urban
Renewal Programme by making contributions to other priority areas
such as Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape, Kwa Mashu in KwaZulu-Natal,
Galeshewe in the Northern Cape and in the nodal areas that have
been identified in other provinces.
- The need to improve and increase delivery in the disposal of
State land.
- The need to be more precise in terms of resources and in
setting targets for the LRAD sub-programme over the next three
years, in order to enhance its coverage and impact.
- The need to make adequate provision in our plan for the Land
for Housing sub-programme, and, together with the Department of
Housing, to make adequate provision in this regard in terms of
resources.
- The need to rise to the challenge of tenure reform remains a
major challenge in terms of our contribution to rural development.
In this regard the Department is expected to address all
institutional and resource issues in good time; conduct and
finalise further consultations with stakeholders on the Communal
Land Rights Bill; ensure that planning processes for the Tenure
Reform Programme are taken on board and are intertwined with the
planning that is taking place for the ISRDP nodes on a national
scale; address the issues of land administration and present
concrete proposals in this regard on the Land Rights Board, the
role of traditional leadership institutions in land administration
and natural resources management.
- Continued targeting of vulnerable groups such as labour
tenants, farm workers and landless communities for resettlement
within the context of the LRAD or the settlement programme.
- Improvement of the quality of our projects by ensuring tighter
integration of delivery processes within the Department and
between our Department and other departments.
- Greater participation of our Department in the various FOSAD
Clusters and in particular to increase our role in the New
Economic Policy for African Development (NEPAD) programme, in SADC,
and in justice and crime prevention, through participation in the
relevant Clusters.
- Improvement of our overall expenditure performance,
particularly in land reform delivery, to the extent of at least
90% of our budget or above
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FUTURE CHALLENGES - RESTITUTION
- The major challenge facing the Commission is, increasing its
human resources, the capital and current budgets, to meet the
deadline of completing the land restitution process in 3 years as
directed by the President. To this end, Cabinet as well as
National Treasury have approached for additional resources.
- Linked to this is the difficult task of speeding up the rural
claims, which are much more complex than urban claims. They
constitute the backbone of land restitution programme. This is
where the largest number of beneficiaries resides and where the
bulk of the land to be restored is found. This is occasioned the
capacity of information on rural claims as against urban claims.
- The most daunting of all the challenges is ensuring that, as
the land is restored to restitution beneficiaries, they are
enabled and empowered to use the land in the most productive and
sustainable way.
- Post settlement support, which we have already alluded to, is
another major challenge for the new financial year.
- We are also faced with the task of ensuring that the
inequalities relating to gender are not replicated in both the
holding of the land and its usage. It is also in this regard that
we must all be seen to honour the promise of our Constitution, by
respecting the rights of women, and other marginalised groups in
our society.
I thank you
Issued by Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs
20 June 2002
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