Agriculture
- Whether there is any legislation or constitutional provisions prohibiting his Department from acquiring pockets of suitable agricultural land to be distributed to emerging black farmers (black, coloured and Indian) for the purposes of farming; if so, what are the relevant details;
- what is the breakdown of the number of farms in the province owned by (a) white people, (b) coloured people, (c) black people and (d) Indian people;
- what is the breakdown of agricultural land in the province owned by (a) white people, (b) coloured people, (c) black people and (d) Indian people in (i) hectares and (ii) percentage terms;
- whether, in the spirit of cooperative governance, his Department engaged other departments or the national government for the purposes of land acquisition and redistribution among emerging black farmers (black, coloured and Indian) in the Western Cape; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
1. (1) According to the Constitution of the country, land reform is a national mandate, and the Western Cape Department of Agriculture (WCDoA) cannot acquire any agricultural land for distribution to black farmers for agricultural purposes. The Department has already obtained a legal opinion in this regard as well.
(2) This information can be obtained from Stats SA. This data was last updated in 2017.
(3) Following the national Land Audit Report, November 2017 Issue 2 of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, the different racial groups own the following (i) hectares and (ii) percentages of agricultural land in the province:
(a) White people, (i) 2 764 652 hectares (ii) 72%.
(b) Coloured people, (i) 561 315 hectares (ii) 15%.
(c) Black African people (i) 53 287 hectares (ii) 1%.
(d) Indian people (i) 174 865 hectares (ii) 4%.
(Please note this data is dated 2017 and has been received from DALRRD).
- The process of land purchases is handled by the Provincial Shared Service Centre (PSSC) of the DALRRD in the province. Farm owners who want to sell their land to the State approach the PSSC. The PSSC then requests this department to assess the relevant farm's resources and thereafter submit the assessment report to the PSSC. However, the final decision on land purchases is made at the national level. Some of my officers have recently been nominated to serve on the Provincial Selection Committee, but no meeting has been held to date. My department, in the spirit of cooperative governance, continues to support the Western Cape PSSC as much as possible.
The Department of Agriculture, Land Affairs and Rural Development has confirmed that its own land reform programme in South Africa has a 90% fail rate.
