The Democratic Alliance (DA) is set to issue a formal request to Minister of Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza, to provides clarity to institute a comprehensive productivity assessment.
Productive assessment on all farms that have been bought by government for land reform purposes since 1994.
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According to DA the assessment of budget documents since 1994 shows that government has spent over R53 billion rand on land reform.
Didiza said despite spending a further R3 billion recapitalising land reform farms, still her Department is uncertain about productivity.
“The R56 billion spent on land reform and recapitalisation does not include the R46 billion that the government has spent on land restitution during the same period,” said DA.
However, the party believes government has spent billions of rand on land reform, with plans to spend more, but has never bothered to review the state of productivity on land reform farms.
Minister Didiza is requested to commission this land reform farm productivity assessment. It will help the country get an informed understanding of the challenges that newly resettled farmers.
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“It is reckless for government pursue an economic ruinous policy such as expropriation without compensation when it has not made an effort to determine whether newly resettled farmers have been adequately capacitated to improve productivity on their farms,” said DA.
Minister Didiza has an obligation to institute the land reform farm productivity assessment as a matter of urgency to enable South Africans to make informed contributions to the ongoing nation debate on land reform.
