THEMBA HLEKO |Responsive government tackles vexing land issue

One of the desirable hallmarks of democracy is that it is people centred.

It gives power to the people and governs through the will of the people. Ideally, it enfranchises the masses by aligning all the mandates it carries to improve the lives of the people.

While these are noble features of democracy, upholding them can mean a lot of things and as a result the government must be deliberate in passing favourable laws.

The government must listen to its citizen. It must even abolish, amend and repeal the laws that are no longer promoting the will of the people.

As a country we come from a painful past characterised by land dispossessions during colonial and apartheid rule. The Land Act of 1913 formalised land dispossessions of black South Africans. These resulted in black people living as servitudes in the land of their forefathers.

After the dawn of democracy, the government promulgated progressive laws that sought to redress the injustices of the past. This was an endeavour to make SA a better place to live in; where the graph of land ownership is not skewed in favour of whites but flattened.

Having realised this fact, it is reassuring to see that the government is doing something to improve the status quo. For example, the high-level panel on the assessment of key legislation and the acceleration of fundamental change headed by former president Kgalema Motlanthe in 2017, found that the land reform statutes on land restitution, land redistribution and security of tenure have drifted away from their initial pro-poor stance and lack a vision for inclusive agrarian reform.

The fact that the panel was instituted by the government is heartwarming because it tells me it listens to its people.

In 2005, at the National Land Summit, several resolutions were adopted, including the need for the government to take on a stronger leadership role in ensuring accelerated and sustainable land and agrarian reform, as well as to fast-track land redistribution.

The proactive land acquisition strategy was one of the ways the government responded in 2007. The goal was to switch land reform from a mostly demand-driven approach to land acquisition and redistribution, to an approach driven by supply.

An evaluation study of the land acquisition strategy in 2014/2015 indicated a number of challenges that inhibited the effectiveness of the strategy. 

In correcting the administrative challenges associated with the strategy, the government accelerated the acquisition of quality and well-located agricultural land in terms of Section 25 of the constitution, as well as the objectives of the Land and Assistance Act No 126 of 1993, by introducing the proactive land acquisition policy in 2018.

. The most consistent features that are still applicable within the much-improved policy framework are that beneficiary through the permission of the state can start the process of acquiring ownership of the allocated land without waiting for the lease to lapse.

The implementation of the land acquisition policy will go a long way in eliminating a great deal of administrative challenges experienced during the implementation of the previous strategy. For example, under the new policy, the process of applying for farms will only take place when a farm is advertised by the state. This supply driven approach eliminates the process of maintaining a database of applicants who are kept on a waiting list for an extended period of time. .

The proactiveness of the government in constantly improving and re-engineering its policies to improve the lives of people hit the right notes of a democratic order where the state constantly re-examines itself for the betterment of its citizens.

• Hleko is an honours graduate in media studies at Unisa