House Chair, in considering this report the ACDP is keenly aware that the mandate of the committees to consider, amend and or initiate legislation specific to or impacts on agriculture, land reform and rural development; monitor and oversee the activities and performance of the Ministry and the former Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and its entities.
The department was appropriated R7,7 billion in the financial year under review, a significant increase from the R6,7 billion that was appropriated in the 2017-18 financial year. As a result of underexpenditure in 2018-
19, the department surrendered R170 million to the National Treasury's National Revenue Fund.
The ACDP finds this alarming particularly when land claims have not been settled. When millions of South Africans are eagerly awaiting to become first-time land and homeowners and when thousands of potential farmers are waiting for assistance so that they can play a role in food security and become productive members of our bleeding economy. The department surrenders a R170 million to the National Treasury's National Revenue Fund.
With unemployment at the highest in decades, a budget deficit climbing to 6% of GDP, debt-to-GDP set to break 70% by 2022-23, junk status that would raise the cost of servicing our debt staring us in the face, a Gini coefficient that is making us the most unequal nation in the world.
We must come to the realisation that amending the Constitution to provide for land expropriation without compensation is not the panacea to the land question but
possibly the final straw that breaks the economy's back. I thank you.