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

A critical appraisal of South Africa’s
market-based land reform policy
and later told they were successful and
could lease the farms.
The LRAD programme was initiated in
2001 by the DoA, which sent officials to
explain the LRAD programme to the
farmers who were leasing the land. The
beneficiaries were told that the government
wanted to get rid of all the farms they
owned and were therefore offering them
for sale to the leaseholders (interview 14).
They were encouraged to apply for LRAD
grants and assisted with filling in the
required forms. It was explained that the
grant would reduce the amount of money
they would need to borrow to buy the
land, and that they would receive the land
at less than the market price.
While the beneficiary perceptions of the
process are positive, there is some confusion
about the time frames for project
application and approval. DLA lists all the
projects on the Steilloop farms as having
been approved on 12 November 2001,
except that of Mr Lehong on Vergenoeg
that was approved on 2 August 2002.
However the beneficiaries report having
been formally told of the approval only in
September 2002 according to Mr Kgatla
(interview 15) and even January 2003
according to Mrs Morapedi (interview 17).
At the time of the interviews in March
2003 they were still waiting for the title
deeds, a factor hampering their ability to
obtain further loans. Some are not even
sure of the exact size of the land they now
own (interviews 13 and 14). Despite these
uncertainties, they noted that from the time
of filling in the forms they were given
strong assurances by the officials that their
applications would be accepted. According
to DLA the problems of establishing the
correct land size stem from the use of old
data that turned out to be inaccurate. They
have since appointed surveyors to clarify
the exact boundaries and farm sizes, and
will update this information on their
records of approved projects (interview 33).
The farms acquired range in size from
1 470ha–1 710ha and all are being used
for cattle farming. All beneficiaries got the
maximum R100 000 grant and also
received substantial loans in the range
R219 000–R333 400 from the Land Bank.
The loans were organised by DLA as part
of the LRAD process, and the full loan and
grant amounts were used for the purchase
of the land. As in Manamead a production
valuation rather than market valuation was
done by the Land Bank and all the farms
were obtained at a very reasonable price
(an average of R232.94 per hectare). As
one of the beneficiaries said, ‘I can say it
was for free, because it was not very
expensive’ (interview 17).
There are five beneficiaries, four men
and one woman, four of whom were interviewed
for this study. All of the beneficiaries
are full-time farmers although Mrs
Morapedi is also a part time councillor in
the local municipality and has a sewing
business as well (interview 17). They live
in villages about 40km away, although two
of them are now living on the farms at
least some of the time.
The production on the farms is primarily
beef cattle, with Mr Kgatla also
keeping some goats and sheep. Three of
the respondents employ two people each,
and one employs three people. Three respondents
also mentioned having family
members who assist. All of those employed
by the beneficiaries are men
employed as labourers.
Mankweng Integrated
development project
This is one of the two group projects
that have been approved. It involves 30
beneficiaries, of whom 29 are women. All
the women are from Mankweng and are
members of the ANC Women’s League.
The man was working and living on the
identified farm for the previous owner and
has knowledge of the farm and farming in
general (interview 36). Mankweng is a
township about 35km to the east of
Polokwane. The farm that the group is
being assisted to purchase is located on the
Polokwane-Dendron road (on the other
side of Polokwane from Mankweng) and is
about 60km from where most of the
beneficiaries live (Kalauba 2003).
32