Dear Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, I stay in the town of De Aar in the Northern Cape. I applied for use of commonage land for agricultural purposes almost 3 years ago, from the Emthanjeni Municipality. Todate I have not received feedback. I have written to and gone to the municipality, to no avail. I have been sent from pillar to post. I am not employed and cannot afford the running up and down. The municipality does not even allocate land that can be purchased for home building or agriculture. Instead land is sold to foreign nationals and conglomerates. Example: a new Spar supermarket is being built on what used to be a public park - mind you none of the public parks and swimming pools are operational in the town. Another example: a foreigner named Polash owns vast amounts of land all around the township and surrounding areas, while none of the inhabitants own any stands.

I plead for assistance. I need land for farming. I can't wait another 3 years.