LREAD

LREAD Perspective June 2017

Casidra2018-11-09T08:35:07+02:00

Cyril Ramaphosa

Earlier in June I travelled to the Koue Bokkeveld to an event where Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, was the guest speaker. True to the area’s name, it was a bitterly cold evening, with outside temperatures dropping to 5 Degrees Celsius on the Gydo pass, on route to the venue! The event was hosted by the Witzenberg Partnerships in Agri Land Solutions (PALS). PALS is a private sector initiate which coordinates and supports transformation projects in the...

LREAD Perspective April 2017

Casidra2018-11-09T08:35:14+02:00Counting Transformation. April 2017 saw the appointment of a Service Provider by the LREAD to establish a Baseline of black land ownership for Western Cape. The need for such a baseline has already been voiced in 2014 during the Provincial Land Reform Summit, an initiative of Western Cape Minister of Economic Opportunities, Alan Winde, where he identified land reform, or the lack thereof, as a real risk to the provincial economy. It logically flows from this that it is...

LREAD Perspective March 2017

Casidra2018-11-09T08:35:19+02:00

Unintended Consequences

Gugile Nkwinti, Minister of Land Reform and Rural Development, announced the Regulation of Agricultural Land Holdings Bill earlier in March this year. The Bill is now open for comments from interested parties after which it will be presented to Parliament for promulgation as an Act. If successful in its current form, this Bill holds the potential to fundamentally alter the manner in which we look and think about land ownership in South Africa.  Amongst other things, the...

LREAD Perspective February 2017

Casidra2018-11-09T08:29:30+02:00

Making sense of land reform in 2017 after the State of the Nation Address and Budget Speech.

During February 2017, we were offered 3 important perspectives from 3 prominent political leaders in South Africa on what the future might hold for our land reform project: The State of the Nation Address by President Zuma on the 9th of February. Subsequent statements from Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Gugile Nkwinti. The Budget Address by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan...

LREAD Perspective January 2017

Casidra2018-11-09T08:29:37+02:00

Land reform crystal ball for the year ahead

A new year with new challenges and opportunities awaits us as 2017 got underway this past January. Land reform issues already surfaced. President Zuma used his final official message of 2016 to speak about land reform. President Zuma called for “decisive action” and “meaningful progress” on land reform and restitution in 2017. President Zuma also mentioned the possibility of using expropriation as a tool in fast tracking land reform, with...

LREAD Land reform perspective – October 2016

Casidra2018-12-23T08:51:45+02:00I recently attended the ten year anniversary of the Agri Dwala project outside of Napier in the Southern Cape. For those of us working full time in land reform and the developmental agricultural sector, it is always a welcome relief and energising experience to interact with a project that keeps on delivering positive results. Agri Dwala is the brain child of Kosie van Zyl, a local farmer, and Piet Blom, an agricultural technical advisor, who saw the opportunity and the potential...

LREAD – Land Reform perspective – September 2016

Casidra2018-12-23T08:51:36+02:00

(The views expressed in this article are not necessarily of Casidra)

Earlier this month I came upon a short news article on the BBC’s website: “North Yorkshire farmer takes on 900-hectare 'dream' job”. The article describes the joy of 28 year old Mr Jonathan Grayshon, from Dacre in Nidderdale in North Yorkshire, after learning that he was selected to farm on the Humberstone Bank Farm. The land owner, Mr Yorkshire Water, needed to find a new manager after the...