Agriculture
(a) To what extend does the practice of communal land tenure exist in the Western Cape, (b) what is his Department’s policy on the practice of communal land tenure and (c) what legislative reviews would support the rights of those staying on such land and ensure that the agricultural potential of such land is optimised?
(a) Formal joint land ownership occurs in two forms in the Western Cape:
(i) Communal Property Associations established in terms of the Communal Property Associations Act No. 28 of 1996. In the Western Cape, there are 32 registered communal property associations. The members of these associations acquired land both through the restitution and redistribution programmes of the government. With the exception of the Ebenhaeser Communal Property Associations (Matzikama Municipality), Covie Communal Property Associations (Bitou Municipality) and Elandskloof Communal Property Associations (Cederberg Municipality), all the other restitution based communal property associations are urban in nature, the property is residential and in some cases commercially and industrially zoned.
The redistribution programme gave smallholder farmers access to agricultural land where they organised themselves into communal property associations.
(ii) Agricultural land of the former Act 9 areas (Act 9 of 1987) held in Trust for communities. Although some of the land of the 12 communities are currently registered with Municipalities, ownership is subject to the provisions of the Transformation of Certain Rural Areas Act No. 94 of 1998. According to Act 94 of 1998, communities must be given the opportunity to decide which legal entity to hold the land on behalf of the communities. As a rule, these communities in the Western Cape decided on joint property associations as a legal entity.
(b) The common property is mainly used for small-scale agriculture, which is supported by the Department. The exception is Ebenhaeser Communal Property Associations and Haarlem Communal Property Associations, which, besides small-scale farming by some members, operate commercial farming on farmland. The latter operations are managed by commercial entities on behalf of the Communal Property Associations.
(c) Right of use is allocated by the general assembly according to the constitution, rules of the association and the principles contained in Act 28 of 1996. In some cases, these allocations are turned into formal lease agreements. Change of these allocated rights can only be done by a General Assembly of the association and a member may, in terms of Act 28 of 1996, appeal his/her occupation to the Director General of Agricultural Land Reform and Rural Development if rights have been deprived in an irregular manner.
