however with the help of the current president Cyril Ramaphosa and Roelf Meyer the negotiations were resumed and peace was maintained.
beneficiaries to develop their land and make meaningful contribution in alleviating poverty in the country. This is one of the major implications that the land reform programme has not succeeded to address. Consequently, it continues to affect the realisation of sustainable land development by failing to encourage and fund developmental projects on the redistributed land and to ensure that land is used productively. Thus, land reform has failed to make a substantial contribution towards the alleviation of poverty, hunger and starvation among the land reform programme beneficiaries.
1.5.2 Statement of the research problem
Since the advent of the Constitutional democracy in 1994, focus and energy have been directed towards land reform that sought mainly to redistribute the land that was illegally seized from the rightful indigenous owners and return it to them as a form of redistribution.
Section 10(a) of the Provision of Land and Assistance Act No 126 of 1993 (PLAA), provides that “for the purposes of providing designated land (land set aside by the state for redistribution) to people, it must be done through the application of section 10(b) of this Act”.
Section 10(b) provides that “the Minister may grant subsidy to acquire land for residential purposes, agricultural production and small business development and for any development of land to any person; who has no land, wishes to gain additional land, who wish to develop the land or who has been dispossessed of land”.85 These sections must be read together with Section 25(5) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa which provides that
“the state must take reasonable and other legislative measures within its available resources to enable people to gain access to land in a just and equitable manner”. Section 25 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa provides that “the Minister on behalf of the state may grant the subsidy within the available resources”, meaning that there are cases where the Minister will fail to give subsidy due to lack of resources. However, this does not prohibit people to gain access to land provided that they have resources to acquire the land.
However, while this redistribution mechanism is carried out and have the backing of the law, it is unfortunate that it merely focuses on redistributing the land to the rightful indigenous owners and fails to provide for other necessary measures such as support services such as funding or skills development training programmes to assist and empower land reform beneficiaries to be able to utilise land in a productive manner. Although, a Comprehensive
85 Act 126 of 1993.
Rural Development Programme (CRDP) was put forth into practice to aid in accessing land for developmental projects such as farming in rural areas. It mainly aimed at making it possible for people in the rural areas to sufficiently independently regulate their livelihoods, with financial patronage from the state, but failed to empower land reform beneficiaries to acquire skills and resources to be used for redistributed land in a productive manner.
Although the programme aimed at effectively eradication of the impoverishment of the rural areas via the best utilisation and “management of natural resources over an integrated broad-based agrarian transformation and the strategic investment in economic and social infrastructure that will advantage rural communities”86, it failed to provide for necessary resources and continuous maintenance and monitoring of those projects.87 As a result, most of the projects have been abandoned because of the inadequacy of skills, resources and other necessary support services the land reform beneficiaries required. These are some of the challenges that have hindered productive use of redistributed land. Furthermore, the poor implementation of laws and policies that promote land reform and development have contributed greatly to lack of developmental infrastructure.
Hence, the study sought to examine the laws and legislation that promote redistribution of land and land reform that fosters productive use (ensuring that land is used for developmental infrastructure and productive farming) of redistributed land. The study also sought to create a theoretical link between land reform and development as a method to lessen and even eradicate poverty in South Africa, especially in the rural regions. However, it is also pertinent to point out that Blacks were not supposed to buy or rent land from any person including owning or renting a farm in terms of Section 1 of the NLA. It is for this reason that Black people lacked farming skills as they were not exposed to commercial farming. Nonetheless, to a lesser extent, the position has changed since South Africa became a democratic Republic, land reform was introduced and commercial farms were redistributed to the people who were dispossessed of their land and farming has become accessible to Blacks; however, there is still a need for major interventions to improve and strengthen productivity.
86 Kloppers and Pienaar (n18).
87 Hall Ruth, A Political Economy of Land Reform in South Africa, Review of African Political Economy (2004), Vol. 31, No. 100, Two Cheers? South African Democracy's First Decade, pp. 213-227.
Although little has been done as far as promoting and equipping black emergent famers in the agriculture sector, the little effort does not entirely ensure that redistributed land is used productively by the emergent farmers to reduce poverty among land reform beneficiaries.
The majority of Black farmers still do not have the essential skills and resources. Most Black farmers have abandoned farming activities and let out or sold the redistributed land. Some of the redistributed land has been left unattended due to lack of necessary skills and resources to work them. Hence, it is important to point out that redistributed land is not mainly for agricultural purposes; therefore, attention should be towards promoting and equipping land reform beneficiaries to use land for other developmental projects such as industrial development involving maize milling or infrastructure which could be sources of job creation and poverty alleviation in the rural communities.
1.5.3 Research question
Since 1994 the democratic government has embarked on a journey of redressing historical injustices, that include land reform. Particularly redistribution and restitution of previously dispossessed land to historically disadvantaged people. To date a substantial amount of land has been redistributed to black people. However, black people still live in appalling conditions and experiencing outright poverty despite land being restored to them. It is however not clear whether or not this is a question of lack of legislative framework or poor implementation from the state. If not could it be lack of resources that deters land reform beneficiaries from utilising their land productively to improve their livelihood. And if so what can be done to assist land reform beneficiaries to use their land productively and consequently alleviate poverty amongst themselves.
1.6 Purpose of the study