THE Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza, has announced that in the next two weeks, government will issue advertisement notices of 896 farms measuring 700 0000 hectares of underutilised or vacant State land.
At a media briefing on Thursday, Didiza announced the process to be followed by members of the public in applying for available agricultural state land as part of the government’s contribution to the land reform programme.
“The advertisement notices will be in the local, district and provincial newspapers, websites and local radio stations. Application forms will be made available in the district offices and provincial offices of the Departments of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development as well as Municipal District offices,” said Didiza.
Didiza said after the closing date, all applications received will be compiled and captured in a database per district in each province.
“The District Beneficiary Screening Committee (DBSC) will screen the application, interview against the criteria as set out in the advertisement notice and make recommendations to the Provincial Technical committee (PTC) for consideration for approximately two weeks, The Provincial Technical Committee (PTC) will evaluate and review the District Committee (DBSC)’s recommendations and submit to the national department for approval,” she said.
“The National Selection and Approval Committee (NSAC) will consider all recommendations and approve suitable applications. Both the successful and unsuccessful applicants will be informed of the outcome in writing.”
In February this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that his administration would release government-owned land to the public.
Didiza said that since then, the department has released about 135 000 hectares of land to 275 farmers.
The majority of this land was released in Mpumalanga.
The breakdown per province is as follows – Free State 501 hectares; Gauteng 929 hectares; KwaZulu-Natal 4 940 hectares; Limpopo 32 170 hectares; Mpumalanga 50 480 hectares, and the North West, 46 097 hectares.
She said that 160 of the 275 farmers that received land were women and 14 of them are young people.
“All beneficiaries who have been allocated State land and signed lease agreements will be subjected to a compulsory training programme. The training programme will include entry level training on the commodity of their choice, basic record keeping, and basic financial management as well as enterprise development,” said Didiza.
She added that the land inquiry process will be on-going on State land that is already occupied without formal approval from the department.
“Such enquiry will assess farms that have been acquired through Pro Active Land Acquisition (PLAS) programme. The land enquiry will investigate and determine how individuals and communities that are currently occupying the land got access to it,” said Didiza.
“The enquiry will also look at how the land is currently being utilised and whether such use is in accordance with the agricultural practices for the area. Where such land has been used for settlement, assessment will be done, together with the departments of human settlement and water affairs, environmental, forestry and fisheries. Based on the outcome of the assessment and recommendation, a decision will be taken on the future of such occupations.”
(COMPILED BY INSIDE POLITICS STAFF)
