28 January 2014

1. AGRI SA COMMENTS ON RESTITUTION OF LAND RIGHTS AMENDMENT BILL 28 January 2014

2. This is not our first experience Previous one was “biggest disaster to have struck the commercial production of food and fiber in SA since the Anglo Boer War” The problem was not the act or the process as it was originally designed, but the disastrous way it was implemented Estimated 13 000 farms gazetted but not yet transferred or unlisted

3. A farm with a land claim on it in pre-settlement: Is not available for redistribution Can not be sold on the open market (no one wants it) Is not good collateral with the financiers (Gunyula, Mooketsi) Is not developed any further without great risk (Bankplaas, Calais, Montina) Lands in the freezer box for a decade

4. History of land claims • 1998 Round 1 closed (63 455 claims) • We don’t know how many claims as we still do not have a complete list (+/- 79 000) • Missed finalisation dates 31 March 2005, 31 Dec 2005, 31 March 2008, 31 Dec 2008, 31 Dec 2012 • As stated here in 2005 and 2008, we still believe that, given the current process and capacity, it will take another 20 years

5. Constraints • Capacity in the regional offices • Internal strife and conflict within claimant structures • Prolonged court cases • Massification of claims (Makgoba 6-417-685, Maupa 225) • Clashing claims • Implications for non-claimants (Maupa/Modjadji/Pheeha) • Newly created/amalgamated claimant entities

6. Rolling back occupation for a century Tribal Chief 6 sons 14 daughters Each marries into a different tribe Their daughters marry into different tribes

7. Outcomes Many more farms are gazetted than those transferred Many more claimants are waiting than those who got land Many more unfinished claims than finalised ones Only 2 large claims unlisted: Trichardtsdal and Queenstown No commercial financing for beneficiaries 90% of these farms failed More CPA’s are dysfunctional Restitution is today land reform without agricultural transformation It’s an expansion of the homelands

8. Tobacco shed on Boninthaba 2006

9. Fertilizer shed on Lofdal 2006

10. Work shop on Boninthaba 2006

11. Implements shed on Lofdal 2006

12. On now-deserted farms transferred to land-claims beneficiaries two years ago, which Business Day photojournalist Martin Rhodes and I visited in Trichardtsdal, we found scene after scene of destruction. These were not farms where production had simply been halted as a consequence of land claims and neglect had taken its toll; these farms had been destroyed beyond redemption. Neels Blom Business Day 29 January 2008 The last time that I saw such wrecked buildings and the wanton destruction of showcase farms was more than 30 years ago in the aftermath of the South African Defence Force’s invasion of Angola. Here, as in the war zone, the degree of vandalism had gone far beyond the force needed to rip out usable items. It is hard to imagine the level of rage that would motivate someone to break every window pane in a building and knock others down until no two bricks remained on top of each other.

13. In the Sekororo claim in Trichardtsdal: Before After 2 150 Jobs vs 1 220 (36 000 lost in district) 5-6 interlinks per day down to 1 trailer 930 workers left the farms, 32 came on 14 international investors opted out in Letaba It will today cost more to get those farms productive again, than what govt paid to acquire it

14. Production losses 2006/7 –Limpopo looses its tea & coffee industries, disinvestment, 12 500 jobs 2008 –Limpopo Premier blames 37% drop in agricultural output on land claims 2010 –Banana Growers can’t cope, area reduced from 11 000ha to 7 000ha SA became a nett importer of food briefly in Feb 2008, seriously since 2012

15. Capital is as shy as a deer Government has publicly promised never To re-open land claims again: Min Thoko Didiza: 8 times Min Lulu Xingwana: 4 times Min Gugile Nkwinti: 3 times

16. Validity Research was halted in 2006 with massivication Agri-SA supported non-contested transfers Rest referred to court Hoedspruit referred in June 2005 –still pending Many people got land which they never claimed Some labour tenant claims were settled through restitution If the validity was not challenged the land was transferred, or compensation paid

17. Demand for re-opening “I grew up with those people who now got land. If they could have a successful claim, I also must have one. I didn’t know I should have claimed” (I didn’t know that the validity wouldn’t matter)

18. Agri-SA’s plea: Don’t re-open restitution, we can not afford more of the same disaster Deal with those who has a legitimate reason why they did not claim, on the basis of condonation Accommodate and give preference to legitimate claimants in the redistribution program

19. If the process must be reopened Privatise it Let the state pay legal costs for land owners too Open for 6 months only Ensure due process Launch an investor confidence program Don’t gazette what the state wouldn’t buy Appoint experts in the department Act against kansvatter claimants Unlist farms which will not be transferred Budget for it!