| South Africa is experiencing a large scale loss of productive land |
| “...farms totalling 5.9 million hectares, which were active and accruing revenue for the state, were handed over to people and more than 90% of those farms are now not functional... We cannot afford to go on like that,” Gugile Nkwinti, Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform. 1 |
| The scale of destruction of economic value is put in context when it is realized that 5,9m Ha is about one and a half times the size of Switzerland. |
| The size of the challenge is considerable |
| While 96% of the 79,696 claims for the restitution of land lodged since 1994 have been settled 2 (amounting to some 2.5m of the 2.6 m Ha claimed), only 3,4m 3 of the 24.9m hectares targeted for redistribution has been redistributed. |
| R4.083 billion was allocated for land reform in the 2010/11 budget. However, the target for the amount of land to be redistributed over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework period has been reduced by more than half. The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform also reported that 25% of the land acquisition budget would be used for the recapitalisation of failed land reform projects. 4 |
| The Business Trust’s response |
| The Business Trust has established a non-profit company called Vumelana to pre-finance the acquisition of transaction advisory skills on behalf of communal land owners and beneficiaries of the land reform process. |
| This model is based on the experience gained by the Business Trust in a five year pilot project that ran between 2005 and 2010 in Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces. The MABEDI project supported the development of 16 Community Private Partnerships and the signing of commercial deals between investors and land holding communities worth R1,5bn. |
| Whilst the Business Trust has completed it’s work, it’s legacy project Vumelana will continue to work to support land claimants and communal property owners. For more information please visit the Vumelana website. |
1 SA Times Mar 2, 2010 Massive farm failure - Brendan Boyle.
2 Report of the Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform on Budget Vote 32: dated 23 Mrt 2010
3 Based on Minister Gugile Nkwinti’s statement that 5,9m Ha has been transferred
4 See 3 above |
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| Visit the Vumelana website |
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