Nufarmer Africa
Land Reform: Industry Must Show
United Front
Prof Mohammad Karaan
T
he minister of land reform and rural
development, Gugile Nkwinti’s proposal
of 50% shareholding in farms by farm
workers, underlines the urgency to find solutions for land reform. The uncertainty has
resulted in new lows in business confidence.
Black and white farming organisations, as well
as the entire agri value chain, must speak with
one voice about the issue en they must demonstrate a united front. So said Prof Mohammad Karaan, Commissioner of the National
Planning Commission and Acting Vice-Rector:
Community Interaction & Personnel at Stellenbosch University at the Agbiz congress.
“The National Planning Commission addresses land reform from the perspective that
it must be an inter-generational plan. This is
not a plan for today, but a plan that addresses
the issue of what must be done by 2030. We
want to know what sacrifices must this generation do to ensure better opportunities for
the next generation,” Karaan said.
“Plans for land reform focus too much on
land and not enough on the people destined
to farm the land. We do not create enough
people at our universities who want to become farmers or work for the department of
agriculture.”
He pointed out that previous land reform
programmes did not succeed, among others
because of a lack of transparency, corruption
and a lack of trust by stakeholders.
“We need a transparent process, welltrained extension officers and high levels of
trust. We also need visionary leadership with
regard to land reform to look at the issue in
a different way. A plan for land reform must
be everybody’s plan. A plan for the people,”
Karaan said.
He said that he believes that the envisaged
district committees, which will deal with land
reform, are a positive step. These committees
will have to identify 20% land destined for
land reform. The government will pay for 50%
of this land and the rest must be financed in
a different way, maybe by commercial banks,
the Land Bank or by businesses.
“There will be pilot projects to test the viability of the scheme,” Kar