A critical appraisal of South Africa's market-based land reform policy

Chapter 5: The LRAD programme
difficult to hold government accountable
for delivery.
The uncertainty about the target for
land redistribution is shared by Limpopo
implementation officials. The provincial
DLA officials we interviewed believed the
target for LRAD is to redistribute 30% of
land in 15 years to ‘black, Indian and
coloured’ citizens who are at least 18 years
of age. However they were not clear about
whether the 30% refers to all land, or only
agricultural land (interviews 1, 2 and 3).
The provincial DoA official interviewed
noted that LRAD is not the only land
reform programme; implying that 30% is
a target for all forms of land reform, including
restitution (interview 4). DLA staff
have not done any calculation to establish
what the 30% target would mean in terms
of hectares of land to be delivered in
Limpopo, or any estimate of how much
land they would need to deliver every year
to reach the target, or what any of this
would cost.
According to the LRAD policy document
(DLA 2001:10) the programme is
intended to assist people to acquire or
lease land for agricultural purposes ranging
‘from subsistence to medium-scale
commercial’ operations. However the
officials we interviewed felt that land
acquired through LRAD is not for subsistence,
it is strictly for commercial
agricultural purposes.
LRAD beneficiaries must be adults who
were previously disadvantaged in terms of
race and who want to use the land for
agricultural production regardless of
whether they are rich or poor, although
civil servants are excluded. The LRAD
policy document also gives particular
attention to addressing gender imbalances
in access to land. In this area LRAD sets a
very clear target: ‘not less than one third of
the transferred land resources must accrue
to women’ (DLA 2001:7). The officials
interviewed also emphasised that the
policy requires the targeting of women and
youth (DLA 2001:6–7).
LRAD, as the primary means of
redistributing land, is also expected to
contribute to the overall objectives
contained in the White Paper:
to address the injustices of
apartheid; to foster national
reconciliation and stability; to
underpin economic growth; and to
improve household welfare and
alleviate poverty (DLA 1997:v).
When assessing the LRAD programme, its
contribution to the achievement of these
broader objectives should also be
considered.
LRAD services and support
The primary mechanism of LRAD is
grants to beneficiaries. The size of a
grant depends on the applicant’s own
contribution, skills and management
ability, although in practice there is no
systematic assessment of management
ability (DLA 2001:7; NDA 2001:5). To
receive a R20 000 grant a person must
contribute R5 000. The more a potential
beneficiary can contribute, the larger the
grant he or she qualifies for, up to a
maximum of R100 000, for which an own
contribution of R400 000 would have be
made (DLA 2001:8–9). The own contribution
may be in the form of the beneficiary’s
own labour up to a maximum
value of R5 000. Contributions may also
be made in the form of cash, assets or
loans. All of these may be combined to
make up the full value of the contribution
(DLA 2001; NDA 2001). Those applying
as a group have to register a legal entity to
own the land and may combine their
grants in order to muster sufficient finance
for the purchase of the targeted land (NDA
2001:3). DLA also assists beneficiaries to
access loans from the state-owned Land
Bank in order to make up any shortfall for
land purchase.
The LRAD policy makes provision for
beneficiaries to ‘graduate from smaller to
larger farms’ through receiving further
grants, as long as the total amount of
grants received by one person never
exceeds the R100 000 maximum. This
facility is intended to enable farmers, who
initially do not have the skills and
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