World Bank lauds Land Summit
Themba Gadebe and Tumelo Modisane
2 August 2005
The World Bank has hailed as a great success the four-day Land Summit at Nasrec, Johannesburg, which ended on Sunday.
Rogier van den Brink, senior economist at World Bank South Africa, told a media briefing that he was pleased the summit revealed a sense of urgency for the task of redistributing land equally and fairly.
"Any country with an equal distribution of land grows faster than one with unresolved land issues," he said.
Van den Brink told journalists that the summit had dealt with issues on which the bank had been advising the South African government since the early 1990s. He supported proposals that the land reform policy of willing buyer, willing seller be scrapped.
"The state has to intervene to remove all market distortions favouring rich and large farmers, because of high prices in the market," he said. "Most farmers can only afford to pay the agricultural value."
Summit delegates suggested that other mechanisms,
provided for in the Constitution, be used instead of willing buyer, willing seller. Suggestions included expropriation, capping the price of land, land tax and scrapping subdivision restrictions.
He said the bank's assessment of successful land reform in other countries was that it took the form of "radical political change". This was communicated to the South African government after the country had achieved democracy.
He said the government should also consider decentralising land reform. "The pace will be faster at local level, because that is where people want the land," he said.
Ensuring success
Van den Brink said it was also important to ensure that beneficiaries would be able to farm their land properly.
"Almost all the land reform programmes in the world ask beneficiaries to contribute to the costs," he said. "Own contribution selects people who are willing and able to run a farm. But it should be within limits, so as not
to exclude the poor and burden new farmers with too much debt."
He said loans needed to stay below the credit ceiling of 30% debt-equity ratio, and that there was a need for a land tax which could be used to obtain financing from landowners.
"Fortunately, South Africa's land reform budget puts the national targets within reach," he said, adding that the country had a "well informed and legal framework to carry successful land reform".
Foreign land ownership
Also at the media briefing, Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza said the Land Summit had achieved its objective of a frank and open assessment of land reform progress.
"We have looked at the issue of land and agrarian reform, and urban development - particularly human settlement," she said.
Other recommendations included the regulation of land ownership by foreigners, and the establishment of local land forums that would identify land need and address
it at a local level.
"The integrated development plans of municipalities must include land reform," she said.
The delegates also called for a comprehensive support package for beneficiaries, to ensure emerging farmers could maintain production.
No firm decision was taken on reopening land claims, said Didiza, as there was clear division on the issue and a need for parliamentary assessment.
Source: BuaNews
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