Deputy Speaker, to Mr Van der Merwe, it's for me to have a clearer vision of the people in the gallery. I can see you clearly.
These measures are crucial to the land reform project, but we cannot do it successfully if we do not have an accurate reflection of the land audit in our country. This is one of the attempts that the department is undertaking. It was done as a result of our inherited legacy of the problems of different countries in one country, so to say, and therefore, different ways of measuring and recording things. Putting them together into a coherent system has proved to be a very daunting task. In fact, the work that has been done facilitated the process of eliminating these problems by useful analysis of all of this information and putting them together.
The focus of the audit is to enhance the compilation of a complete, accurate, comprehensive and reliable database of registered land parcels, thereby improving the integrity of a comprehensive land register and facilitating the update of asset registers of all organs of state. In other words, all departments at the national, provincial and local levels will now have a better picture, and where the absence of a land register created reasons for the Auditor-General's concerns, these will be dealt with effectively once this process is over. It also serves as a basis for enhanced planning and administration, including other functions relating to property portfolio management and improved delivery of services. The Department of Public Works, for example, is already creating structures that will more effectively deal with the portfolio of properties.
Due consideration was given to, amongst others, the government's programme of action and the objectives of the 18 key targets of the National Development Plan. The project is aligned with the following objectives of Chapter 8 of the National Development Plan, namely Spatial Justice: a strong and efficient spatial planning system, well integrated across the spheres of government; upgrading of all informal settlements on suitable, well-located land by 2030; enabling more people to live closer to their places of work; having a better quality public transport; and more jobs in and close to dense and urban townships.
The enhancement of the land register would be an invaluable linkage between, and repository of land information to, various strategic interventions currently under formulation, like the Land Management Commission as well as the Office of the Valuer-General and the implementation of the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act.
This work is crucial for these programmes. To make our land reform a success depends on us improving this. One of the difficulties was the physical verification of the land parcels. The previous regime created serious difficulties, not only in who had it given land to, but also under what name and for what purpose. The physical verification, sending people to each part of the country and to each specific parcel of land, has been part of the process that was undertaken to do this verification. It has proved to be very useful and it has given us more or less the results that we would have liked to see.
Ironically, it is because of our intention to move away from racial classification that has created problems. In the registration of people and their acquisition of land, there has been no indication of whether people are black or white. This created an obstacle for us in verifying who actually owns land in our country. It is also important for members to remember that, as a result of weak regulatory systems in place, there are, amongst others, huge land grabs that are taking place globally and on our continent. We do not know whether foreigners own land in our country, how much land, and to what extent can we effectively protect land and ensure that most land is in the hands of the state and its people so that our development is not compromised by the inability of an ineffective land management system.
We say these things because our process would have been faster and quicker had we not been cautious and reconciliatory. We were mindful of the condition in our country that created a situation where, if we moved any faster, we might have compromised some of the successes we have gained in building social cohesion in our country and in creating conditions for people to accept the bona fides of all of us in a single united nonracial and democratic country.
Those processes were important. It is therefore absolutely crucial that once fully completed, we will have a very useful audit in our hands that will inform our planning processes and enable us to implement the National Development Plan effectively. These are some of the seeds that we are planting with a view to harvesting what we have outlined in the goals of the National Development Plan. There is no doubt that, taken good care of and nurtured appropriately, we will make the implementation very successful.
The information and the details hereof are available on the department's website and members can visit it freely to inform themselves. The usefulness of knowing fully is that we will know what to change and how quickly we can move. This is the purpose of this statement and we hope that members will support it and make sure that wherever we are located, we are able to remove all obstacles towards its completion. I thank you.