Hon Deputy Speaker and hon members, the task at hand is for the state to take reasonable legislative measures and foster conditions that will enable citizens to gain equitable access to land. The question of access to land is a thorny and controversial subject in the South African context. Current planning laws are deeply flawed and lack an efficient legal framework, which then makes it an impossible task to plan for sustainable, integrated and equitable land use and development in South Africa.
A coherent and transparent regulatory framework is indeed long overdue and needs to be facilitated soonest. The hope is that this Bill is here to fill that gap, as was stipulated in the Constitutional Court in 2010. Government's failure to attend to defects in the Development Facilitation Act of 1995 is at the very least cause for concern, as the importance of this subject cannot be overstated.
We now have the National Planning Commission with its National Development Plan also reiterating that land use and spatial planning are crucial to the future of the country, which then makes it imperative that this Bill must adequately cover all issues previously raised and pass all tests, especially those that relate to its constitutionality, otherwise growth and progress will continue to be retarded.
However, our concern is that, as land restitution is mounted, those who once lived in one area and were moved during those dark days of the black spots will have to go back to their own land, but will still leave other people behind. As such it means that a community is torn between two places. We have noted the inconsiderate building of RDP houses on land that had been used for and is suitable for agricultural purposes. As we proceed, this cannot bode well for good land use and development.
The Bill fails to incorporate sufficient development principles relevant to the principle of sustainability, and fails to recognise the impact mining has had on communities. However, on the flip side, one good thing about the Bill is that, in an effort to stop the wrangling about the price of land, as the willing-buyer, willing-seller approach has not delivered adequately, we can welcome the establishment of the Office of the Evaluator-General, who will determine the price of any piece of land in case there is a dispute. I thank you.