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

Chapter 6: LRAD projects in Limpopo
The group first heard about the LRAD
programme at a local meeting organised
by the Polokwane Municipality at which
the DLA Provincial Director spoke about
LRAD. They also heard about it on the
radio. The Provincial Director is from the
area and helped by advising them ‘as a
local woman’ (interview 36). The group
applied some time in early 2002 and was
told the project was approved around July
of the same year, although according to
DLA records it was approved on 2 August
2002. However, at the time of the interview
in March 2003, the project participants
had not yet received the transfer of
the land or started production.
Members of the group travelled at their
own initiative and cost to the DLA office
in Polokwane to make and follow up on
the applications. The project members
incurred a lot of transport costs travelling
to the DLA office and felt that the process
was slow and inefficient with ‘a lot of
hassles’ (interview 19). This contributed to
a number of group members dropping out
when they saw no progress in the project.
The LRAD application itself went reasonably
smoothly; problems seem to have
arisen with registering a trust and the
transfer of title on the property.
The members of the group rejected the
agents appointed by DLA to register the
trust and this caused some tensions
between the group and the DLA Project
Officer whom the Chairperson of the
group referred to as ‘unco-operative and
rude’ (interview 19). The Chairperson
complained that she was instructed by the
Project Officer to sign blank forms that she
was told were for the change of ownership,
but at the time of the interview the group
had still not been able to take occupation
of the farm. She was also asked to sign a
form to confirm receipt of the grant
money, but refused to sign, as the group
had received no money.
The group members are unemployed
although they have an existing project on
some land close to Mankweng and have
managed to sell some produce to a local
school. They have no experience of
commercial farming, but have been doing
subsistence farming.
The ‘own contribution’ of the beneficiaries
to the project was in the form of
labour and calculated at R5 000 per
person, making a total of R150 000. They
did not get any loan or make any contribution
of assets. Each beneficiary was
allocated the minimum grant of R20 000
and these grants were combined to give
the group access to R600 000. The project
is to acquire a 24ha farm from a white land
owner for the asking price of R280 000, an
amount that had been confirmed by a
valuer as a fair market price. The balance
of the grant is to be used for the purchase
of a vehicle and other equipment needed
for the project.
Production has not started as the land
transfer has not gone through, but it is the
intention of the project to grow mealies
and other vegetables for their own use and
to sell locally.
Vaalkop
Vaalkop is a 1 897ha piece of land that
was part of a mission station owned by the
Catholic Church. It is located about 30km
south west of Polokwane in the former
homeland of Lebowa. There has been a
community living on the land for generations.
They are descendents of the early
converts who came to stay close to the
church. No interview was conducted with
the beneficiaries, but information was
obtained from the DoA and DLA
(interviews 32 and 33).
The LRAD project was initiated by the
church that approached DLA for assistance
when it wished to dispose of the land to
the community living there. The land was
donated by the church and all those already
living on it are listed by DLA as the
LRAD beneficiaries. This project has by
far the largest number of beneficiaries of
DLA-implemented LRAD projects in
Limpopo, accounting for 203 out of a
total of 251 (that is, over 80%) (Makharamedzha
2002).
The own contribution by the beneficiaries
was in the form of their labour and
33