Green paper on land reform process: consolidating submissions

Opposition parties, non- governmental organisations (NGOs) working in rural development, and representatives of farm workers are all concerned that the green paper does not describe how communal land will be managed.

The Legal Resources Centre (LRC), which represents many rural communities, says in its submission that the green paper does not give priority to the rural poor. The LRC also expresses grave concern that the paper's does not suggest bold steps to grant women and youth land ownership rights in areas controlled by traditional leaders, showing - the LRC argues - a tacit endorsement of the distortion of customary law by bolstering chiefs' unilateral power while undermining indigenous accountability mechanisms. According to Businesslive.co.za, the LRC quotes from the ANC 2007 Polokwane resolution, which called for "the allocation of customary land" in a democratised manner that "empowers rural women and supports the building of democratic community structures."

In a joint presentation, a group of NGOs including the Mawubuye Land Rights Forum, the Makukhanye Rural Organisation, the Rural People's Movement, Iliziwi Lamafama, Siyazakha and the Mopani Farmers' Union argues that the present green paper is a continuation of past policy positions such as its recognition of the Willing Buyer, Willing Seller (WBWS) fundamentals. "The WBWS is an issue that hangs over from the 2005 National Summit which already indicated that the WBWS was not facilitating land transformation. Yet there has been no change, and no scrapping of this market-led policy framework," the coalition argues, adding that the paper's emphasis on industrial farming remains unchanged.

Read the full article on www.businesslive.co.za.