Chairperson, hon Minister, hon Deputy Minister, members and our guests, ANC policy, coupled with the Freedom Charter, the Reconstruction and Development Programme, RDP, and the Constitution, should be one of our key sources to guide us and our approach to the Budget Vote debate on the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme, CRDP, land reform and restitution.
The Constitution enjoins the state to support its citizens in gaining access to land on an equitable basis. Section 25 of our Constitution has a direct bearing on the core mandate of the department. Provision 4 of this section focuses on the three-pronged land reform programme, pointing to tenure reform, restitution and land redistribution.
The 52nd National Conference of the ANC confirmed that rural development is a central pillar of our struggle against unemployment, poverty and inequality. High levels of inequality inhibit the growth of our economy and undermine our efforts to ensure growth. Therefore, the ANC resolved to embark on an integrated programme of rural development, land reform and agrarian change by providing social and economic infrastructure and the extension of quality government services, particularly on health care and education, to rural areas.
Poverty is the single greatest burden on South Africa's people, and is the direct result of the apartheid system and the grossly skewed nature of business and industrial development. The CRDP was launched in Muyexe in August 2009. The department has rolled out this programme out to more than 30 wards in rural municipalities in a few months. Its intentions are to improve service delivery; to provide skills and reduce unemployment; and to improve economic growth in rural areas.
We commend the department for the improvement made in implementing the CRDP. In the 2009-10 financial year the department had nine sites in the following areas: Muyexe, Riemvasmaak, Donkershoek, Diyatalawa, Mhlonthlo, Dysselsdorp, Msinga, and Vryburg. These areas are better than yesterday and tomorrow they will be better than today.
In all these areas the department has been able to improve the socioeconomic conditions, and the lives of the poor in rural areas. Large- scale programmes were implemented in a co-ordinated manner, such as access roads, IT technology, houses, a multi-purpose centre that houses postal services and a community hall.
This is a strong indication that the department has the capacity to implement the CRDP and to expand the programme to 180 wards by 2012. Is that not progress? What type of progress do we want? The ANC government can plan and implement its programmes.
Lessons were also learnt by the department during the implementation, and some challenges were picked up, such as: underutilisation and unsustainable use of natural resources; unexploited opportunities in agriculture, mining and tourism; lack of access to water for household use and agricultural development; lack of socioeconomic infrastructure in rural areas; decay of social fabric, where lots of households are headed by children.
We are confident that the identified challenges will assist the department to adjust and intensify its plan according to the needs of our people, and identify viable solutions to these challenges in order to improve the CRDP.
We have noted the budget increase of this programme. In 2010-11 it was allocated R342,4 million, which has been increased to R441,3 million in 2011-12, representing a real increase of 23%. This increase will ensure that the department is able to meet its higher target for rolling out the CRDP to 180 wards in 2011-12.
Development is not about the delivery of goods to passive citizens, but it's about active involvement and growing empowerment. The profiling of each household and the establishment of the council of stakeholders is to ensure that we mobilise the masses of our people to work in partnership with government to carry out the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme, CRDP, and liberate themselves from poverty and unemployment.
We need the involvement of the people in this programme in order for them to be part of decision-making on what infrastructure they need; to participate by being employed in the construction of those projects; and also to be empowered to manage and administer the projects to overcome the legacy of apartheid.
This is an indication that the ANC government is for the people. The top- down approach is what has failed the DA. The bottom-up approach is what will sustain the ANC.
Amandla asebantwini. [Power is in the people.]
This budget must be used effectively and respond to the needs of the people, as we know that the budget is a tool to change lives of the people.
The President has declared 2011-12 as the year of job creation. The department has a plan in place regarding how they are going to create jobs as per the directive of the President through land reform and rural development. The New Growth Path provides strategies for the creation of jobs. It plans to develop strategies and programmes that will create jobs specifically for rural communities.
As the ANC we welcome the plan of the department to create 500 000 jobs in ten years to eradicate poverty and unemployment. Unemployment has been caused by apartheid, by designing education that makes us job seekers instead of job creators, but the ANC is turning the tide. [Interjections.]
For the department to execute its mandate, it must have sufficient human and financial resources. It is convincing that the department is geared to ensuring improved service delivery by creating enough capacity for the implementation of its programmes.
The department has been able to reduce its vacancy rate from 16,7% to 10,2%. There is a plan to reduce the vacancy rate to 8%, based on the available budget for the compensation of employees. The work has already begun of filling the posts with the right people for the job. We also welcome the plan of the department to review its staff establishment to get a picture of the capacity they have and the capacity they need, because they cannot keep on filling vacant posts without any purpose.
The 52nd National Conference of the ANC resolved that there should be an agrarian change, with a view to supporting subsistence food production, expanding the role and productivity of smallholder farming, and maintaining a vibrant and competitive agricultural sector.
Therefore smallholders are established with the purpose of improving the productivity of the existing small-scale and subsistence farmers and integrating the smallholders into formal value chain links with markets for the smallholders to grow and expand, and be part of the commercial market.
The hon President has entrusted the department with the responsibility of ensuring that more small-scale farmers graduate and become commercial farmers by 2014. Therefore the department has to ensure that its interdepartmental co-operation agreement with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is able to achieve this. We appreciate the role the department has played in empowering smallholders but there is still more to be done.
We note the good intentions of restitution, which seeks to deal with the settlement of land claims lodged with the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights in terms of the provisions of the Restitution of Land Rights Act, Act 22 of 1994.
The department is trying its best to restitute land to the people who were dispossessed of their land, through restoration and financial compensation. In 2010-11 the restitution budget was R3,5 billion, which has decreased by R1 billion to R2,5 billion in 2011-12, a decrease of 33,3%.
We have further noted the decline in the budget for this programme over the past four years, despite the challenges faced by the department in accelerating the implementation of land restitution. Some of these challenges are the following: the outstanding land claims to be paid, the litigation against the department by land owners, and the land claims backlogs. It will only be possible for the department to deal with these challenges if it is properly funded.
The Public Finance Management Act, PFMA, Act 1 of 1999, allows a virement to be made if there is a need to shift funds from one programme to another. What is the problem with that? What is the problem if the virement has been done within the prescripts of the PFMA? It was made for South Africans in order for them to benefit from the restitution programme.
The department has realised that delivering land to people is not sustainable without effective support and development. That is why it has taken a decision to improve all land reform projects. It has implemented the Recapitalisation and Development Programme to assist land reform beneficiaries who are struggling to use land effectively.
The programme will improve their farming skills for them to benefit from this programme, and their lives will be changed for the better. In the 2010- 11 budget year 411 farms were recapitalised and in the 2011-12 financial year 387 farms are to benefit from this programme.
To assist the struggling beneficiaries, the department has called on experienced farmers to assist in regard to co-management, strategic partnership and mentoring. While this is the right thing to do, the department has to monitor whether this strategic partnership is achieving the desired objective of training and skills transfer to beneficiaries and ensuring that beneficiaries are involved in the management of their farms, so as to avoid a situation of management of farms becoming a one man show. Thorough selection criteria of strategic partners have been developed to ensure the appointment of progressive partners. Some of the strategic partners fail our people. Some people must thank God for giving them a chance to come here and say what they want to say in this House.
Kujabula kuyashintshana. [Today all is well with me, but tomorrow all will be well with you.]
The budget for the land reform programme increased from R2,1 billion in 2010-11 to R4,2 billion in this year, reflecting an increase of 100%. It is also expected to increase further over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, period at an average annual rate of 29,8%. In normal terms, this increase will ensure that land reform projects and beneficiaries are provided with technical and financial resources in order to enhance productivity of land and create sustainable livelihoods and decent work in rural areas.
The lack of access to water was identified as one of the challenges that affect productivity. Land reform projects and land restitution cannot be productive if there is no water. Therefore we commend the department for its plan to provide 5 000 kl rainwater harvesting tanks; drilling and equipping boreholes; and constructing reservoirs. This will address the challenge faced by communities with a shortage of water for household use and agricultural purposes, which deprives them of their right to farm.
Chairperson, it does not mean that the department is doing nothing about the State Land Audit. It is a work in progress. We appreciate the comprehensive plan of the department to audit state land, for the department to know what belongs to the state, to private owners and to foreigners. Although, Chairperson ... [Interjections.]