Chairperson, hon members, the Budget Vote before us is the subject of much policy controversy. We have been assured by the Minister that his department's recently released documents on changes to the land reform policy are in fact not official government policy. Unfortunately it creates the impression that there is uncertainty within the government and the ruling party about the fundamental approach to the question of land.
The UDM maintains that the majority of the population continues to be locked out of the formal economy because of the land tenure system. It is up to the government to devise means of assisting these people to access financing because, currently, this hurdle prevents them from offering collateral to financial institutions.
The other perennial problem of land reform is that beneficiaries of land with agricultural potential are often failing to make productive use of this land. It is a loss for these communities that they are not making a success of their new land, but it is also a loss for the country because we are under severe pressure to ensure our national food security. Clearly, the current strategies of government are not succeeding in assisting the beneficiaries of land reform to succeed.
It is particularly disconcerting to read in the latest Mail & Guardian that a person with close ties to the family of the President has seemingly been the beneficiary of a generous offer by government to buy land she owns in KwaZulu-Natal. The timing of the government's offer creates the impression that this is a handy bail-out for a politically connected individual.
The UDM is delighted that rural development now has a dedicated department and budget. It is a specific area of government failure that we've long campaigned against.
We urge the Minister to do a formal survey of the severe infrastructure backlogs in rural areas. The economic and social crisis of rural areas can be traced back to the poor state of basic infrastructure such as roads, water and electricity. These backlogs hamper the ability of people to do the simplest of tasks, such as travelling to a market or going to school. A rural development strategy that does not address this underlying infrastructure crisis would be doomed to failure. The UDM support this budget. I thank you.