Area land reform initiative in Makhado Municipality, South Africa
Manenzhe, Tshililo
South Africa has a history of colonialism and apartheid, which resulted in majority of black people being dispossessed of their land and creating imbalances in terms of land ownership patterns. The demand for land formed a core part of the struggle for liberation in South Africa. During the negotiated transition to democracy the land issue was extensively discussed. This resulted in the South African Constitution (Act 106 of 1996, section 25) making it imperative that the state takes reasonable measures to ensure equitable land distribution. The South African land reform programme has three programmes, namely Restitution, Redistribution and Tenure reform. The main aim of restitution programme is to restore land rights or provide other equitable redress to those unfairly dispossessed of their land rights after 19 June 1913 (the introduction of the Native Land Act 27 of 1913). Restitution is a rights based programme implemented in terms of section 25 (7) of the Constitution. The redistribution programme aims to achieve a fairer distribution of land in South Africa. It has been based on a willing seller-willing buyer approach with the government providing discretionary grants to enable black people to buy land. Initially redistribution targeted the poor, but over the last five years it has shifted to involve the provision of grants to any black people who wish to acquire land and it has put more emphasis on establishing a class of black commercial farmers. Tenure reform aims to provide those living on other peoplees land with legally secure system of land holding or, especially in the case of farm dwellers at least procedural rights to avoid arbitrary evictions. Eleven years of post apartheid land reform have not brought about the expected and promised transformation of land ownership and access in South Africa. The rate of land reform delivery continues to fall far short of peoplees expectations and the revised government target of redistributing 30% of agricultural land by 2014. At the same time few of the implemented land reform projects are achieving the expected development benefits. Given the current inappropriate project design, disempowerment of participants, almost non-existence post settlement support and failure to integrate land reform into broader local and economic development strategies, the failure to achieve development benefits is not surprising. This paper describes a project called Area Land Reform Initiative (ALRI) that Nkuzi Development Association, a land rights NGO based in Limpopo Province, piloted with the specific aim of developing an approach that could meet the challenge of delivering land at scale in a way that realizes the development benefits. The focus of the project was the Makhado Municipal area. The choice of the area was based on the history of Nkuziis work with the local land reform forum comprising communities involved in land reform, particularly land restitution, and it is an area with huge land needs where little progress has been made in addressing those needs.
Event: A vision for the future : International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development
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