Hon Speaker, hon
members, the acceleration of land reform is essential for the transformation of society, particularly in relation to tackling poverty and growing our economy.
The Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture, which I appointed in September 2018 to provide expert advice on the critical task of land reform, has produced several far- reaching recommendations to ensure that we correct the skewed distribution of land in our country and also address the issue of land use and utilisation. This is necessary if we are to reduce inequality.
Through providing poor South Africans with land on which to farm, to live and to run businesses, we will be able to break the cycle of poverty in which many people are currently trapped. The report of the Advisory Panel has been presented to Cabinet and has been made available to the public.
The report provides a detailed and critical assessment on progress since 1994 and it also outlines some of the weaknesses in our policies and programmes. This report recommends legal mechanisms to recognise, register, record and enforce a continuum of land rights, so that all our people become right holders.
The Panel has called on government to immediately identify well- located and unused or underutilised land and buildings for the purposes of urban settlement and to prioritise poor tenants for upgrading their rights.
The panel argues that expropriation without compensation should happen and it also said expropriation without compensation by
itself, is not a solution to land reform, but is just one of the means and the mechanisms of acquiring land.
The report goes much further to address questions of who should benefit, and promotes a participatory and democratic, area-based approach to identifying land needs. The panel's recommendations complement and reinforce the work being done by the Inter- Ministerial Committee, IMC, on Land Reform chaired by the Deputy President.
The IMC is making progress in the development of the National Spatial Development Framework, which will guide our efforts to ensure that land use and planning is developmental and transforms people's lives.
The work that is being done by the Deputy President as well as the IMC has identified number of land parcels that need to be given to our people so that they can have access to land and to work, part of it is through redistribution and restitution.
The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure has released
100 parcels of land for land restitution purposes. For the remaining parcels of land, land use studies are being finalised, which include land identified for human settlements.
Progress is being made in the development of an integrated model for farmer support. The model entails the provision of financial and nonfinancial support through the value chain. It is intended that, together with the work already underway, the panel's recommendations will inform the finalisation of a comprehensive, far-reaching and transformative land reform programme. The work that has been done by the panel obviously will be the work that will complement the work that we are doing here in Parliament in dealing with the issue of the land question.
Cabinet still needs to consider the findings and recommendations of the panel. The report having being presented to Cabinet, Cabinet will release it for debate and discussion throughout the country and will thereafter be able to settle down and give consideration to the recommendations after which it will then make a pronouncement on the implementation of this report. We
hope this will dovetail with the work that is being done here in the National Assembly on the land question. Thank you, hon Speaker.