Democratic Alliance MP Lindiwe Mazibuko warns that ‘the vast majority of the black beneficiaries of the ‘land redistribution’ scheme’ are merely ‘tenants on state-owned land” – 29 September 2011.
Mazibuko: “The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform’s 2010/11 annual report has revealed that 85.6% of land purchased from land-owners for the purposes of land reform has been transferred to land claimants under leasehold, while only 14.4% of claimants have been awarded full ownership rights.According to the annual report, a total of 322,844.9931hectares of land was ‘ transferred to beneficiaries ‘ in the 2010/11 financial year. However – these ‘beneficiaries’ remain very poor and cannot improve their land because some 85% of them remain tenants on state-owned land.
And such tenants on State-owned land cannot use their ‘land-rights’ as collateral to borrow with banks to improve their land-parcels with because the land belongs to the State.
Mazibuko points out”Not only does this prevent the land from being used as loan collateral, but it acts as a disincentive for claimants to invest in the land’s productive capacity. Without the freedom and stability to invest in their properties, claimants are consigned to the status of tenants, and have no incentive to make improvements to the land they have acquired since they bear neither the risk nor the reward associated with running a successful business. Why would claimants devote time and resources to investing in land that is not theirs? This effectively means that the true spirit of the purpose of land reform – the returning of land rights denied during apartheid and the colonial era to black claimants with full ownership rights – is not being adhered to…”
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will soon be making its submission on the Land Reform Green Paper. The Department has today indicated that the deadline for submissions is 31 October. Central to this will be the proposal that the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS), which facilitates the transferring of land to claimants under leasehold, be scrapped. It is essential that all land is transferred with full ownership rights, together with the requisite skills training and financial support, to ensure that land reform is a success.”
Statement issued by Lindiwe Mazibuko MP, DA Shadow Minister of Land Reform and Rural Development, September 29 2011
Source – DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT & LAND REFORM – annual report 1 april 2010 – 31 march 2011
Source – Politicsweb – Only 14.4% of land claimaints receive ownership rights – Lindiwe Mazibuko
Even more ominous is the fact that the regime has lodged yet another new Bill to confiscate even more land, ‘ in the public interest ’
Eyewitness accounts of current local farm-production, Oct 2011
Pieter Oosthuizen commented on Oct 6 2011 that his sister drove last weekend from Jan Kempdorp to Johannesburg – and that along the entire 400km distance, there only were three farms still planted with food-crops. “It used to be one continuous display of productive farms the entire distance. Now, most of the land has been torched and covered in weeds.’
Stephanie Vouros “driving to Witbank on Oct 5 2011, one could only discern barren earth. Outside Ogies there used to be lush farm-lands, now it’s just barren soil as far as the eye can see. Almost as if all the farmers decided to stop planting altogether, or they have been murdered. The farm-houses have broken-out windows and there’s no livestock – and right up to Middelburg it was the same dismal scenery. We are facing a massive famine.’
FARMERS WANT SELF-DEFENCE COMMANDOS
LIMPOPO Letsitele Valley – Local farmers urge reinstatement of the self-defence rural commando system after there were another five farm-murders in their region in February. The latest two farmers to be murdered in South Africa are Belgian farmer Etienne Cannaerts (61), kidnapped and found with his throat slashed near Ellisras/Lephalale on Friday. A day later farm manager Paul Dunn (49), of Constantia Citrus Products in the Letsitele valley outside Tzaneen was shot dead during a fierce gunfight with three attackers inside his homestead. A total of five people were murdered on Limpopo farms in February said Dr. Theo de Jager, vice-president of Agri SA. “People are angry. Many farmers phone me, demanding for the reinstatement of the (citizen-volunteer) commando system.”
The Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa wants the SAPS to acknowledge the legality of their volunteer farm-watch system ‘s use of green flashing lights on their patrol vehicles. “The police insist that green patrol lights are ‘illegal’ and have clashed with TAU-SA several times about their use’, said TAU-SA in a statement issued after the latest farm murders in Limpopo.
Paul Dunn (49) farm manager Limpopo Constantia Citrus murdered - Feb 28 2010
Local farmer Japie Ellis of the Lephalale area told Beeld newspaper that Belgian-born farmer Etienne Cannaerts probably was attacked and kidnapped after he had opened his farm gate upon his return from offloading his workers on Friday. “The attackers drove Cannaerts in his own vehicle to a water-pan on the farm, his hands and feet were tied up and his throat was then cut. “His body was found that night on a remote farm road,’ said Ellis. Police superintendent Ronel Otto confirmed that nothing was robbed.
A family friend of the Cannaerts couple Mr Marco Ruiter said the murder was ‘gruesome. “Cannaerts and his wife Ingrid lived on the farm for the past six years. They do not have South African citizenship. We do not want to talk about it. Mr Cannaerts’ body is being shipped to Belgium for a post-mortem examination and he will be buried there,’ said Ruiter.
And Dries Enslin, chairman of Agri-Letaba, said that farm manager Paul Dunn, left, died in the ensuing gunfight after he more than likely was alerted to three attackers breaking into his homestead again – and in the firefight Dunn injured one attacker before he was shot dead. The farm manager was shot in the chest, neck, right arm and back. Superintendent Otto said ‘various household goods were stolen’. The injured attacker was traced by his blood trail followed by local farmers who also used a private helicopter to locate the injured gunman. He’s now under police guard at a local hospital.
Enslin said that in this region alone a total of twelve crime-incidents occurred in the past ten days on Letsitele farms. said Doors Le Roux chairman of TAU-SA in the district. They have asked for an urgent meeting with the local ANC-MEC in charge of security for Limpopo province and police commissioner cdr. Calvin Sengani to ‘discuss the issue’. The Letsitele-area farmers participate in the sector-policing programme of the SAPS and have a ‘good relationship’ with the local police – but that much more obviously needs to be done.As it happens Agri-SA is holding a crime-conference in Centurion on Monday in which the lack of security on farms countrywide will also be ‘discussed’ with Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa.
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