The South African government has made almost 900 farms available for emerging farmers to lease on underutilised or vacant state land. The government is offering 30-year leaseholds, with an option to buy, which raises the old issue about how these farmers can raise finance without collateral.
Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza made the announcement on Thursday, 1 October that over the next two weeks, the government will issue advertising notices for 896 farms on 700,000ha of underutilised or vacant state land. The plots in question are found in all provinces with the exceptions of Gauteng and the Western Cape.
The process unsurprisingly involves reams of red tape.
The District Beneficiary Screening Committee will screen the applications, which, in turn, will make recommendations to the Provincial Technical committees (PTC). The PTCs will review these and then submit them to the National Selection and Approval Committee for approval. Applications who don’t make the grade can turn to the Land Allocation Appeals Committee.
South Africa’s efforts at land reform, which aim to rectify enduring racial disparities in ownership, have generally been regarded as a flop. This is, in part, because of the bureaucracy involved, which is overseen by a state clearly lacking capacity.
This…
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