Ever since its inception, the land reform programme has been impactful in breaking down the patterns of land ownership and since its inception, government has managed to acquire five million hectares of land.<\/p>\n
This, according to Deputy President David Mabuza when responding to oral questions in the National Council of Provinces, has benefitted hundreds of thousands of people.<\/p>\n
The Deputy President said over the years, various policy instruments have been employed to accelerate land reform for agriculture, human settlements and economic development in general.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are advised by the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development that since the inception of the land reform programme, government has acquired over five million hectares of land through the land redistribution programme, from over 5 500 projects that benefited hundreds of thousands of people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe strategic acquisition of land by government over time has been crucial to government\u2019s ability to make more land available for agricultural production,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
DA MP from the Western Cape Cathlene Labuschagne had asked the Deputy President whether government\u2019s land reform programme is effective taking into consideration the agricultural support, transfer of ownership and title deeds, amongst other things.<\/p>\n
The Deputy President said beyond the narrow lens of agriculture, it should be appreciated that more people now have houses and title deeds on the land they own.<\/p>\n
He said across the country, communities whose land was taken away have successfully reclaimed the land of their ancestors, erasing the sad and dehumanising experience and indignity of forced removals and dispossession.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile challenges remain, our land reform programme has been impactful and effective in breaking down barriers to land access and ownership in post-apartheid South Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than any other time in our history, more people have had access to land that caters for the expansion of human settlements in urban and peri-urban areas.<\/p>\n
“More land has been acquired and redistributed to cater for industrial development, including the targeted land for Special Economic Zones and Industrial Parks in many parts of the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Progress on the release of state-owned land<\/strong><\/p>\n The Deputy President said, meanwhile, that the process to release more state-owned land to aspirant farmers for long-term leases is currently in progress.<\/p>\n \u201cTo date, government has acquired over 2.2 million hectares of land which constitute over 1 800 farms.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernment has committed to releasing state owned land for agriculture and development.<\/p>\n \u201cThe lease agreements go up to 30 years, and the lessees have options to buy the farms.<\/p>\n \u201cBased on meeting performance and applicable policy considerations, there is no reason why ownership of these farms would not be transferred to those beneficiaries who would have demonstrated the productive and efficient use of allocated land.\u201d \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ever since its inception, the land reform programme has been impactful in breaking down the patterns of land ownership and since its inception, government has managed to acquire five million hectares of land. This, according to Deputy President David Mabuza when responding to oral questions in the National Council of Provinces, has benefitted hundreds of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-183202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-sanews","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}