Hon House Chair, at the outset the ACDP wishes to commend the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development on the compilation of this Report on their oversight visit to KwaZulu- Natal. On studying the Report one finds that it is frank, transparent and not shy of honouring the truth as it elaborates on both successes and failures.
It is the view of the ACDP that this Report presents a synopsis, a microcosm - a snapshot if you like - of the challenges pertaining to the land question. The ruling party has had 25 years to bring redress to the landless, impoverished and the indigent of our country. If one takes this particular Report as a progress on redress, the only conclusion that one can reach is that the ruling party and those that are accountable to it has failed in this regard.
Allow me to site a few examples to substantiate. The one hector one household programme was meant to allocate one hector of land to needy households in order to reduce poverty in rural areas and revive the calibre of productive black smallholder farmers and food produces. What did the committee find? The funds for this programme were allocated to commercial farmers rather than needy households. Secondly, some beneficiaries who would have benefited from the recapitalisation and development programme and further received the one hector one household grant while many poor communities waited for government support.
The Amandla Thuthuka Co-operative needed R3 million from the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme for a four-kilometre fence and a feedlot, R490 000 was provided for the fence with no gates at one camp. The fence is now in need of repair because the project has been abandoned allegedly due to competition within the mining sector. The committee made two tallying observations; firstly, the collects of land reform projects can be attributed to weaker institutional mechanisms for co- ordinating interventions on land reform. Secondly, they said, there are no mechanisms to streamline funding of projects and ensure that the intended beneficiaries are supported.
Hon House Chair, it is the view of the African Christian Democratic Party that these recommendations given by this particular portfolio committee is what we should be focussed on and what we should be fixing rather than meddling with section 25 of our Constitution. I thank you as the ACDP support this Report.