Land reform without support sets communities up to fail

Most people who have their land returned under the government’s reform programme don’t have the technical know-how or enough access to markets to make a profit from it.

This is according to Vumelana Advisory Fund CEO Peter Setou, who said giving land back without offering post-settlement support was pointless.

“Successful land reform is critical for stability and social cohesion,” he said. “It [inadequate support for land reclaimants] is setting people up for failure.

“We get so fixated on getting the land back, but if the beneficiaries don’t get support, they often are forced to sell. The result is the loss of jobs for people who worked that land and it feeds food insecurity.”

An example of a successful land reclamation project that received support was that of 130 Mpumalanga residents who were able to profit in 2021 from crops planted the year before, he said. They acquired the land in 1998.

To enable a profit, an initial R25m needed to be invested.

The Vumelana Advisory Fund is an NPO that provides funding and guidance to beneficiaries so they can profit commercially from their land.

Setou said a major problem was that the government often did not have the funds to support these communities.

The restitution of land is integral to correcting the apartheid injustice of forcibly removing black families from their land through the Natives Land Act. Once promulgated in 1913, the government moved these families to poor homelands and poorly serviced townships, setting them up for inequality and poverty-stricken futures.

In 1994 the new democratic government began to make laws and implement a land reform programme. But today, most transferred land remains unproductive.

A 2010 study found 90% of the 5.9-million hectares (1.5 times bigger than Switzerland) transferred was not economically active. This was announced by then rural development and land reform minister Gugile Nkwinti, who was concerned about the cost to the state.

In 2012 the land transferred was equal to 6.7-million hectares and the failure rate had reduced to 70%. 

It is with this background that the Vumelana Advisory Fund operates. The NPO helps beneficiaries of the programme to develop their land effectively and profitably.

Among its success stories is the Mswati-Selde So agricultural partnership in Mpumalanga.

In 1997 130 members were registered as beneficiaries of the Mswati Communal Property Association (CPA). In 1998 a 1,418ha farm was purchased and transferred to the CPA.

The land was now owned by capable small-scale farmers who wanted to expand production for commerce. But their efforts were unsuccessful as they did not have access to capital and their irrigation system had stopped working.

Mswati CPA approached the Vumelana Advisory Fund in 2017 and the farmers were paired with fruit and vegetable supplier Selde So Boerdery in a 23-year lease agreement.

Setou explained the process.

A community pitches a plan to the fund. If it is viable, Vumelana pays for independent advisers to assess the land and help create best-use plans for commercial success. These advisers then seek partnerships with businesses.

“The community is involved, so it takes ownership of the project. Our costs are then recovered from the investor if the deal is sealed,” said Setou.

“Once the fees are recovered, we look at rebuilding and support. If we don’t support the community to create protocols around the business, then we’ve seen that there can be instances of infighting among the community. So we help create processes that are transparent.”

In this case Vumelana spent R805,000 on advisers. Five hectares are used for communal farming and 300ha for pecan nut farming.

The Mswati-Selde So agreement is:

• In the first five years, water, fencing, roads and buildings will be refurbished on the farm and 150ha of pecan nuts will be planted.
• In the next five years, another 150ha of pecan nuts will be added, with packing facilities.

In 2020 40ha of pecan nuts were planted and a 4.5km canal network refurbished to bring water to the land. More than 20 people are employed on the farm and, most importantly, the CPA distributed the first R3,000 to each beneficiary early last year.

Setou said their work was in line with the National Development Plan (NDP) for economic transformation by 2030, now moved to 2035. 

“The government has a clear policy objective ... Some of those objectives include doubling the number of small, formal businesses, including farms; increasing black ownership of commercial farmland; and increasing the percentage of black-owned formal business.

“The NDP argues that agriculture is the primary economic activity in rural areas and has the potential to create 1-million new jobs by 2030.

“This can be achieved by, among other things, reviving defunct irrigation schemes in the former homelands and expanding the agricultural area under irrigation. It is argued that the current million hectares under irrigation can be increased by a further 500,000ha through efficient use of existing resources.”

Setou said Vumelana’s main objective was to demonstrate the value of community-private partnerships as contributors to successful land reform.

The fund was established in 2012 after the government’s Business Trust closed. The finite trust ran from 1999 to 2011 to accelerate the achievement of national objectives. It was funded by businesses and the government. 

Vumelana is based on a pilot project in Maruleng and Bushbuckridge between 2005 and 2007. Known as Mabedi, it created partnerships between communities and investors.

To date, Vumelana has facilitated 23 partnerships that have the potential to put about 70,000ha of land into productive use, benefiting more than 20,000 households in 18 communities.

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