DA land reform plan: Own your home outright‚ that's first prize

Granting black South Africans the opportunity to be property owners is central to the Democratic Alliance's land reform policy‚ says its leader Mmusi Maimane.

"We are the only party in South Africa that has focused on reforming ownership of urban land by making sure that beneficiaries of state subsidised housing have full ownership title to those homes.

"We have made 75‚000 home owners already‚ and are distributing more title deeds every day we are in government‚" he said on Monday‚ referring to initiatives implemented by the party in the Western Cape.

Mechanisms existed to achieve this‚ he said.

"The aggressive expansion of affordable housing projects in Central Business Districts (CBDs)‚ the rapid delivery of title deeds‚ share equity schemes and land reform projects in the Western Cape are but a few examples."

Maimane said the party believes strongly that citizens living on communal or tribal trust land must have "absolutely certain" security of tenure that is both recorded and legally enforceable. He commented: "Indeed‚ the one group of people that already experience expropriation without compensation in South Africa are the rural poor‚ especially women‚ who regularly have their land rights summarily changed or revoked by traditional leaders."

Amongst the party's policy promises on land is:

- New recipients of state subsidised housing will receive full title‚ and past recipients of RDP homes will given full title;

- We will make it cheaper for first time buyers to purchase homes through lowering of transfer costs;

- We will distribute the thousands of government owned farms and fallow land‚ instead of treating emerging farmers as permanent tenants;

- We will give residents of tribal land security of tenure that is recorded and legally enforceable;

- We will allocate adequate budgets to settle all remaining land restitution claims‚ and for land reform purposes‚ on the basis of the Constitutional guidelines for compensation; and

- Anyone who wants to farm will receive the support they need to be successful‚ through the transference of skills and by providing access to the resources and markets they need to sell their goods.

"All of this is attainable without amending the Constitution‚" Maimane noted.

"Our approach seeks to make people real homeowners‚ and protects their right to build assets and wealth over time and hand these over to their children. This is the only way to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty that Apartheid has left us."