DA to meet with Land Bank to address land reform concerns

Issued by Thandeka Mbabama MP – DA Shadow Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform
22 Apr 2018 in News

As part of a wider programme to meet various stakeholders and industry experts in a bid to address the land question as well as expanding support for emerging Black farmers, the DA will meet with the Land and Agricultural Development Bank of South Africa otherwise known as the Land Bank on Monday, 23 April 2018.

I will be joined by colleagues, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Ken Robertson MP, and DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Annette Steyn MP.

The meeting aims to find out about the Land Bank’s strategies to increase funding for emerging Black farmers and continuous training and support to ensure that they become enterprising farmers.

It is of great concern to the DA that there’s been minimal support for Black South African farmers who are unable to expand their businesses in order to create job opportunities due to financial constraints.

Reports that a livestock support programme meant for poor North West farmers was allegedly taken over by Premier Supra Mahumapelo to directly benefit former President Jacob Zuma, is but one example of the corruption that has become embedded in land reform.

The ANC government has now turned to the populist ‘land expropriation without compensation’ to cover its gaping failure at land reform and how it continues to fail poor black farmers.

The DA is committed to expanding support for Black farmers, especially Black female farmers. Unfortunately, the ANC is using expropriation without compensation to hide their own failures and decades of gross mismanagement of the land reform process.

Post settlement funding for emerging farmers is critically important for the DA as this is one of the biggest impediments to the sustainability of land reform projects.

In the Western Cape we leverage approximately R80 million per annum from the private sector to support emerging farms and we will discuss with the Land Bank how we can grow support for emerging farmers nationally.