Hon Chair, hon members, as we prepare our way forward in implementing the objectives of our new Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, we must take stock of what the Department of Land Affairs has been doing. On that basis, we must clearly articulate the way forward in terms of the establishment of the new department.
As reflected in the 2008-11 strategic plan, the department revised the national land redistribution target to 608 000 hectares in order to align it with the actual budget.
The Commission on Restitution of Land Rights settled a total of 653 claims, inclusive of 108 that were dismissed. This resulted in approximately 394 000 hectares of land being approved for restoration, affecting approximately 30 000 households. Cumulatively, the approved hectares of land for restitution purposes since 1995 is 2,47 million, representing a 10% contribution to the overall target of redistributing 30% of white-owned agricultural land to black farmers by 2014.
In terms of forestry claims, great progress has been made with regard to the implementation of the memorandum of agreements signed between Mondi and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry on the settlement of these claims. Much of the deliverables in this regard will be reported on in the forthcoming financial year.
The commission is left with approximately 4 296 complex rural claims to settle, with four of the regional offices intending to finalise their claims by the end of this financial year. These are Gauteng, which is left with only three outstanding claims; Free State with only 22; the Northern Cape with 164; and the Western Cape with 573.
While the department developed a postsettlement strategy to effectively support communities after they took transfer of land, this strategy, however, could not be implemented for lack of capacity.
The department has recognised that in order to move forward decisively in the land distribution programme, significant changes will have to be made to the willing-buyer, willing-seller model of land redistribution. The department will have to investigate less costly, alternative ways of land acquisition by engaging with all stakeholders within the sector. We have heard the landless people; they say the willing-buyer, willing-seller model doesn't work. We heard the ANC's 52nd national conference of 2007; it said the model does not work. We must now hear the landed folks of our country.
We will be seeking a much more pragmatic formula for land redistribution, one which should address issues as part of our country's ongoing national reconciliation project. It should not be seen as a super profit-making business venture. Such an approach would lead our country to a dead end in the long term. Our strongly held view is that land access and ownership should first of all satisfy the land needs of South Africans. This objective shall, preferably, be pursued without the need to amend the Constitution.
Secure land tenure is fundamental to rural development, and it is imperative that the department reviews policy and legislation relating to tenure on commercial farms, as well as in commercial areas. As a short-to- medium-term measure, we will continue to provide legal assistance to the 2,8 million people living without secure tenure on commercial farms in South Africa. Two most recent Grahamstown High Court judgments in favour of victims of farm evictions in areas such as Cradock and Seven Fountains are encouraging in this regard.
Side by side with this aggressive legal protection of the rights of farm tenants and workers on white commercial farms, the former homeland areas will become a central focus area for the government's Comprehensive Rural Development Programme for the next five years. The strategy for the implementation of the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme and land reform involves agrarian transformation, and sustained rapid and fundamental change in relation to land, livestock, cropping and communities for sustainable growth and development.
Relying heavily on the Freedom Charter, the 2005 January 8 statement of the ANC had the following to say in this regard, and I quote:
The democratic state must take the lead in the transformation of our economy away from the fetters of the past, which constrained growth and development. Among the mechanisms that the developmental state deploys to restore the national wealth of our country to the people are:
Sustained and substantial investment in economic and social infrastructure, built with methods with a bias towards labour- intensive technologies; increasing the access of the masses of the people to physical resources, particularly land, housing and community infrastructure; poverty reduction and eradication through job creation, skills development and budget interventions to increase the social wage, bearing in mind our limited means; affirmative action, broad-based black economic empowerment and other interventions designed to fast-track the inclusion of the previously marginalised in the mainstream economy and simultaneously transform the structure of the economy; and ensuring the growth and development of our economy to provide the means to achieve the broad goals indicated by the Freedom Charter. Of course this is what we have to do. As His Excellency, the President of the Republic, enjoined us during his state of the nation address, we are committed to speedily returning the land use management Bill to this House after undertaking the necessary consultations. Without this Bill, we may not achieve our goal of dealing with the disintegrated apartheid settlement patterns and the inefficiency with which land use decisions are taken. The land use management Bill will also enable us to improve the capacity of our municipalities, especially rural ones, in land use management.
Following the reorganisation of the new administration, we now have a new department, the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform. The Budget Vote which I am presenting today is informed by what we consider to be an interim strategic plan. Our five-year strategic plan for this new term of office will be influenced by a new strategy based on the new mandate to the government and its key objectives and strategic goals.
The strategy of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform is agrarian transformation. The overall outcome has to be social cohesion and development. The following strategic goals will be pursued in the quest for vibrant and sustainable rural communities: firstly, the establishment of business initiatives, agro-industries, co-operatives, cultural initiatives and vibrant local markets in rural areas; secondly, the empowerment of rural people and communities, especially women and youth, through facilitating and mediating strong organisational and institutional capabilities and abilities to take full charge of their own destiny; thirdly, training rural people in technical skills, combining them with indigenous knowhow and knowledge to mitigate community vulnerability to, especially, climate change, soil erosion, drought, snow, animal diseases, flooding, tornados and other natural disasters and emergencies, and hunger and food insecurity; and, finally, revitalisation and revamping of old, and the creation of new, economic, social, information communication infrastructure, and public amenities and facilities in villages and small rural towns.
We have developed a broad concept of what the new department will look like. This is work in progress, but we have a clear idea about its core thrust, thanks to the resolution of the ANC's 52nd national conference on rural development, agrarian change and land reform. An important element of this resolution is the establishment of a Rural Development Agency. Our work has thus been cut out for us.
Furthermore, we have to speed up the settlement of processed land claims and expedite the processing of remaining ones. This much has been made well understood by both the National Land Claims Commissioner and the director- general.
In addition to the points made above, we have agreed that we need to improve the manner in which we work as a department. We have agreed that in both land restitution and land redistribution, we must sort out unnecessary institutional constraints in the short term, whilst we deal with external challenges in the medium to long term.
With respect to the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme, we have adopted a three-phase approach. Phase one, which deals with piloting the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme, is a programme which is being implemented and piloted in the Greater Giyani Local Municipality in Limpopo province.
The medium term, which is phase two, is focused mainly on enterprise development and food security. This programme, which is a joint effort between the Departments of Rural Development and Land Reform, and of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, will be riding on the back of phase one. Its complexity and enterprise lie in the fact that it must encompass the total value added in both crop and livestock farming. The catalytic tool for this phase is economic, social, information communication, public amenities and facilities, and infrastructure development. All nine provinces should commence with this phase very soon.
The long term or the third phase is that the programme will focus on small, micro and medium enterprises and industries; cultural tourism; co- operatives and vibrant village markets, and so forth. The catalyst for this phase, though not exclusively so, is the Rural Development Agency, riding on the back of phase two. The small rural towns will feature prominently during this phase. Hon Chair, let me conclude by stressing that there is nothing romantic about poverty, inequality, unemployment, cultural backwardness and social fragmentation. We dare not romanticise these socioeconomic ills, for they are real and they are very bad. We have to deal with them very decisively, as the hon President said during his state of the nation address to the National Assembly, and when he responded to the debate on his speech.
The government has adopted the Giyani pilot as a national government pilot. This means that rural development will not only be a project of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, but rather a government- wide project. This has encouraged us to ensure that in our responsibilities of facilitating, initiating, co-ordinating and catalysing some of these projects, we will work together with all the departments of government, municipalities and Premiers' offices. We cannot perform this responsibility alone.
But one fundamental requirement and bottom line for a successful and lasting rural development project is that rural communities themselves have got to be assisted and encouraged in a sustained manner to organise themselves into disciplined and productive formations through which they can express themselves, in themselves and for themselves, in the spirit of Vukuzenzele, Hi Tihluvukisa, Siyazondla or Phezu Komkhono. Thank you, hon Chair. [Applause.]