Cabinet has approved the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform’s Green Paper on Land Reform. The Green Paper constructs a framework for the review of the current land tenure system which will take place during this Medium Term Strategic Framework period. The review process will be conducted through a process of consultation with all South Africans, with a view to formulating a tenure system that “satisfies the aspirations of most, if not all, South African, irrespective of race, gender and class”.

The Department’s land reform strategy is one of “Agrarian Transformation”. This means “a rapid and fundamental change in the relations (systems and patterns of ownership and control) of land, livestock, cropping and community.”

Vision for land reform

• A re-configures single, coherent four-tiered system of land tenure which ensures that all South Africans, especially rural black people, have reasonable access to land with secure rights, in order to fulfil their basic needs for housing and productive livelihoods.
• Clearly defined property rights sustained by a fair, equitable and accountable land administration system.
• Effective land use planning and regulatory systems which promote optimal land utilization in all areas and sectors; and effectively administered rural and urban lands and sustainable rural production systems.

Underlying principles

• Deracialising the rural economy;
• Democratic and equitable land allocation and use across race, gender and class;
• A sustained production discipline for food security.

The long-term goal of land reform is social cohesion and development – the latter connoting strong growth and prosperity, relative income equality, full employment and cultural progress.

Some of the current challenges: rationale for change

• Land acquisition strategy – willing-buyer/willing-seller model;
• Fragmented beneficiary support system;
• Beneficiary selection for land redistribution;
• Land administration, especially in rural areas;
• Meeting the 30% redistribution target by 2014.

Proposed solution

• Recapitalization and development programme to ensure all land reform farms are 100% productive through partnerships with commercial farms;
• A single land tenure system with 4 tiers of tenure ranging from private freehold to communally owned land;
• A Land Management Commission;
• A Land Valuer-General;
• Land Rights Management Board;
• Common property institutions;
• Land Tenure Security Bill.

It is important that the children’s sector, especially the ECD sector, be active participants in the dialogue around land reform that is going to take place in the coming months, given that rural poverty and food security are integral objectives of the land reform process and at the same time key objectives of the integrated early childhood development plan so necessary for optimal young child development and well-being. In addition, it is especially important that children be mobilised to participate in the process, as the decisions that are going to be made will affect them now as children and in the future as adults. This requires that the sector ensure that the official dialogue and processes create the space and be inviting of children’s participation, and that children be mobilised within communities to make use of these opportunities.

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Click here to view a copy of the land reform green paper.