Redressing the Legacy of the 1913 Land Act: The Role of Municipalities in Land Reform and Rural Development

1. Redressing the legacy of the 1913 Land Act: 07 - 08 June 2013Good Hope Chamber- Parliament, Cape Town THEME THE ROLE OF MUNICIPALITIES IN IMPLEMENTATION OF LAND REFORM AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES

2. PRESENTATION OUTLINE • Problem Statement • Background • CRD Initiative • Current CRDP Framework • CRDP Key Issues • Key issues for municipalities and challenges with current approaches • Institutional arrangements • Institutional capacity building • Coordination and alignment of initiatives • Partnerships • Possible role of municipalities

3. PROBLEM STATEMENT • The Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP) that was launched in 2009 does not seem to have adequately addressed the central question of the role and function of local government in rural development initiatives. • The IDP processes are not optimally utilized in order to facilitate coordination in planning and programme alignment and implementation with municipal development initiatives • Being the sphere of government that is closest to the people any development initiative that is driven by local community participation must be predicated on a strong role of local government in project identification, planning, implementation and subsequent operation. • The ability of local government to play a strong and meaningful role in the fight against rural poverty, will largely depend on the capacity of local government to perform such a role as well as other local project dynamics.

4. BACKGROUND • Since 1994, the government embarked on various rural development policy initiatives aimed at positively impacting on the livelihoods of the rural people. • The Integrated sustainable rural development strategy was one such initiative that sought to alleviate rural poverty by creatively harnessing available resources in the targeted rural spaces. • The various rural development initiatives adopted by government thus far have had limited successes, largely due : • to the challenges associated with the establishment of viable institutional arrangements to coordinate, manage and align the initiatives of the plethora of steak holders and development partners in rural development. • Incoherent and fragmented approaches by various spheres of government • Blurring of responsibilities due to lack of clear legislative definition of rural development and the roles and responsibilities between the three spheres of government

5. CRDP INITIATIVE Mainly involves • Agrarian transformation- with a focus on projects that facilitates the creation and improvement of agro-industrial and technological initiatives, agro-based community formations such as cooperatives whose objective is to facilitate improvement in rural livelihoods through agrarian interventions. • Land reform- focusing on equitable redistribution of land, improvement of security of tenure as well as the sustainable utilization of land. • Rural development- with a focus on improvement or development of both social and economic infrastructure in rural areas. • A wide range of activities involving large number of stake-holders and experts

6. CURRENT CRDP FRAMEWORK The Programme is driven by the DRDLR which acts as: • The initiator of rural development initiatives. • The coordinator of policies and strategies and assist with the mobilization of resources and stakeholder activities in pursuit of the objectives of rural development • Facilitator for community involvement as well as other stakeholder involvement, especially in cases where the expertise to execute the rural development initiative lies in other sector departments or institutions • Catalyst in so far as the transformation of rural areas in order to create vibrant and sustainable rural livelihoods

7. CRDP KEY ISSUES • Comprehensive Rural Development Programme’s (CRDP) is a new development paradigm combining a variety of features that have marked previous rural development models such as: • Specific territorial approaches • A focus on community participatory processes • Emphasis on land and agricultural reform and infrastructure investment • Incorporation of a range of stakeholders in programme implementation

8. KEY ISSUES FOR MUNICIPALITIES AND CHALLENGES WITH CURRENT APPROACHES • SALGA and CLGF held workshops and information dissemination seminars in August 2011 in Polokwane and October 2011 at Birchwood, respectively. • Key issues that emerged are: • No clear direction or coherent strategy for role of municipalities in rural development in South Africa • Land reform would stimulate small-farmer sector, but there is little evidence that transfer of land is having significant impact The National Spatial Development Framework: • Focuses on major urban centres, based on the contention that government’s key social objective of poverty alleviation would best be achieved by focusing economic growth in economically sustainable areas with proven development potential • Links with dominant paradigm of belief in formal economy as driver for growth • Suggests inadequate analysis of diversified livelihoods-based approaches

9. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS • Should be able to respond to specific dynamics of particular project community and where possible should avoid a “one size fits all” approach • Should involve various Stakeholders such as: • Traditional leaders, municipalities, universities and research institutions, beneficiary communities, non-governmental organisations and sector departments • The role of the various stakeholders in the current rural development initiatives has not been adequately articulated. • Given that all rural development programmes are implemented in “municipal spaces” and must form part of the municipal IDPs, the central role of municipalities in any institutional arrangements is crucial

10. INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING • Ensures that the rural people meaningfully participate in improving their own livelihoods, In order to ensure that programmes become sustainable • Various rural development initiatives implemented by sector departments do not show evidence of systematic institutional capacity development being incorporated as an integral part of rural development • Development of community capacity to manage development initiatives is therefore critical for long term programme sustainability

11. COORDINATION AND ALIGNMENT OF INITIATIVES • “Rural space” is awash with development initiatives from various “development agencies • There is lack of role clarification between the various stakeholders in rural development • Causes difficulty for sector department programmes to be effectively coordinated and integrated at municipal level

12. PARTNERSHIPS • Training institutions: • Important role in building sustainable institutional capacity • Ensures that such institutions become “living laboratories” as they align their research initiatives to rural development programmes. • Development of a “social compact”: • Facilitate in institutionalisation of participation of stakeholders and ensure that support located at correct sphere of government • Improves planning processes and sustainability of rural development.

13. DEFINING THE ROLE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT • Resources and technical skills that define the institutional capacity of local government and its ability to play a particular role in rural development also vary between institution • Challenges of capacity levels must be addressed within the context of a defined scope for local government structures • Many local governments have inherited complex and fragmented structures from the apartheid dispensation. • Relationship between district municipalities (DMS) and local municipalities (LMs) highly problematic, often one of competition rather than cooperation • The Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998: • Provides for variants of local government, including participation through ward committees

14. CHALLENGES • Huge diversity between large and well-funded municipalities, often large urban areas with developed industries, and the small, poorly resourced municipalities • There is need for a differential approach to rural development • Greater clarity of roles and responsibilities of different spheres of government would help reduce duplication and competition among local municipalities, districts and provinces • Potential tension between traditional authorities and local government need to be resolved by actively facilitating traditional leaders’ involvement with local government • Participatory systems must be strengthened, funds must be channelled to wards • Economic policy in relation to agriculture and rural development needs to mobilize significant potential of agriculture value chain

15. POSSIBLE ROLE OF MUNICIPALITIES • Project Management (Identification, planning and implementation) • Local government sector should be single entry window responsible for this • Information is gathered by local government through the IDP processes sector, thus logical institution to manage prioritization of development needs • Capacity Building • Continuous and regular interaction between the local government sector and rural communities places sector in an ideal position to manage and coordinate initiatives that are aimed at building capacity of rural communities to take charge of their development needs • Resources spent on capacity building initiatives by various stakeholders can better be leveraged by institutionalizing capacity building in rural development as a core function of local government

16. POSSIBLE ROLE OF MUNICIPALITIES Continued….. • Partnership development and management • Capacity challenges can be dealt with through development of appropriate partnerships between the state and other key stakeholders • Imperative for local government to identify potential partnerships that will be beneficial to communities they serve • Training and Coordination • Training interventions offered by the DAFF (through its extension officers services) and Department of Trade and Industry for cooperatives can better be coordinated such functions devolved to local government sector

17. THE END THANK YOU