Land & Local Government: Problem or Potential? (Part 1)

AFRA News No. 59 Jan 2006

Learning from Makhado - Marc Wegerif

A few years ago Nkuzi Development Association (Nkuzi), a land sector NGO based in Limpopo Province, started a project called the Area Land Reform Initiative (ALRI). This project was started with the specific aim of developing an approach that could meet the challenge of delivering land at a scale and in a way that realises the development benefits. The project targets the Makhado (formerly Louis Trichardt) municipal area in the northern part of the Limpopo Province.

Key partners in the project are the Makhado Local Municipality and the Land Reform Forum that is the local structure of the LPM, comprising over sixty land claimant communities within the municipal area. This area was chosen for the project due to the working relationship that Nkuzi already had with the Land Reform Forum, and the municipality. It is also an area with many land needs and where little progress had been made.

The strategy which ALRI adopted centred around facilitating landless communities in the development of a plan for land and agrarian reform. The work of the project first focused on an area within Makhado Nzhelele. Nzhelele is part of the former homeland of Venda and is a typical resettlement area of the apartheid era of forced removals. Later it was requested by stakeholders that the approach should cover the whole of Makhado, as it also emerged that land claims by communities in Nzhelele affected most of the Makhado area.

Consultation and research

As there had in the past been no co-ordination between the various structures and departments involved, support was organised from key stakeholders inside and outside government.

Consultative workshops and meetings with individual communities and with the structures of the Land Reform Forum were used to identify land needs and issues from a community perspective. These were also a way of promoting a more integrated and developmental approach to dealing with land reform.

Information was gathered from government departments, such as the RLCC and the DLA, on all the land claims and existing land reform projects in the area. This information was documented, along with the information gathered from communities. This included the plotting of all land claims on maps to develop, for the first time, a picture of what land is affected.

It was found that there are over sixty land claims (fifty-six just from Nzhelele) that appear to be valid, and that these cover over 90% of land in Makhado. There are about 10 000 farm workers many of whom live with their families on the farms. There are a few LRAD projects, although the land claims make it difficult to go forward with a large number of redistribution projects. A few land claims have been settled with return of land, and these experiences have highlighted the lack of a post settlement strategy.

The Makhado Municipality had no plan for dealing with land reform in their area. Their IDPs had no plan for dealing with land reform in the area or even made any mention of it. This despite the dramatic impact the settlement of land claims is likely to have on most developments planned within the IDP.

An integrated approach

The information gathered confirmed the need for an integrated approach to deal with the multiplicity of issues required for success. The potentially far reaching impact of land reform in the area also highlights the need for a vision of the development outcome that involves quite integrally land reform in progress. The number of different claims and other land needs also makes it impossible for stakeholders to co-ordinate their actions around each project, confirming the need to try and get co-ordination at an area level.

As part of the ALRI project Nkuzi ran a number of training workshops for municipal councillors, officials, community leaders, community members, and other stakeholders on issues such as livelihood concepts, development, land reform, and planning. These aimed to raise the level of awareness and have a common understanding of key concepts amongst the participants in the ALRI process.

Nkuzi facilitated workshops specifically with women and youth to address their involvement in land reform. Several workshops were held with women representatives from communities in the area where issues of gender and the role of women in land reform, development and community organising were discussed. Similar workshops were run with youth delegates. These workshops also discussed strategies for organising women and youth to have a more prominent role within land reform processes and structures.

After a series of consultations, where further resource organisations such as the local university and agricultural training college were involved, a Makhado Land Conference was held in August 2004 to discuss the proposed approach and solutions. The main components of the approach being suggested were to have the government departments, community organisations (including the land claimants) and other stakeholders collaborating around an integrated and common approach to dealing with land and related development issues within the Makhado area.

This approach will require the decentralising of decision making powers and control of resources. It will also require the establishment of a multi-disciplinary team, initially with staff seconded or assigned from the key departments, to implement the work at the local level. Once a team is in place they will need to develop a common approach to how they work, including the reorientation of officials to put the beneficiaries of land reform at the centre of planning, decision making and implementation. A number of specific projects were also identified as part of the proposed plans. These projects include: putting in place a local team with the capacity to facilitate the acquisition and distribution of land; ensuring access to capital for new farmers; improving access to markets; infrastructure development; and building the capacity to provide the required extension services.

The Makhado Land Conference was attended by amongst others the Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs. The stakeholders at the conference – including the Minister and senior DLA officials – gave a strong endorsement for the initiative, confirming that it needs to be taken forward with a central role for the municipality in driving the process.

Reaching an impasse

Following the conference discussions were held with senior managers at DLA about the next steps to implementation. A document was drafted outlining the roles and responsibilities of the various stakeholders in the initiative. There followed an impasse in the project as those involved waited for the various government departments to take the steps agreed to: the critical issue being to commit to the roles and responsibilities identified and to allocate the required personnel to the project.

Nkuzi continued to work at the community level dealing with land issues that arose, and supporting capacity and institution building activities. But despite this, community structures have not taken steps to push for the implementation of the co-ordinated approach agreed upon.

One of the challenges that has arisen is the difficulty of getting action from government on a new approach, despite very senior level endorsement of the initiative. The municipality, DLA, and the Provincial and National Departments of Agriculture have all experienced changes at the highest management levels in the last year. However it seems there are also more general and entrenched challenges to changing government approaches to implementation.

What is working

At the National Land Summit held at the end of July 2005 the idea of a proactive and integrated local area approach featured prominently in the discussions about alternative ways of delivering land reform. This cannot of course be attributed solely to the ALRI, but the initiative does seem to have made a contribution to the thinking and debates. It was highlighted as a possible way forward by the Minister for Agriculture and Land Affairs in her closing address to the Summit.

Despite not being fully implemented, the ALRI work appears to have brought some positive results:

• Instead of being dealt with individually, the land claims are being handled in clusters of claims. This enables a more developmental and co-ordinated approach and has helped to sustain organisation amongst communities that have as a consequence been able to discuss and take common positions on issues.

• There is an increased role now for women and youth within the land claims committees at a community and forum level.

• The compilation of the information on land claims has clearly illustrated that a developmental approach is needed and that a narrow project approach simply cannot succeed.

• The municipality is playing a more active role in land reform pr ocesses within the area.

Moving forward

Nkuzi recently arranged a multi-stakeholder workshop to review the status of the initiative and what can be done to move forward. The organisations present – that ranged from the DLA and the premier's office, to the LPM and local chamber of commerce – committed to taking the initiative forward. However it is still clear that there is a significant institutional inertia that makes it very difficult for government departments to shift approach, and Nkuzi has realised that they will have to continue to push for action even if commitments are made from others. It is also clear that communities need to mobilise to hold government accountable for commitments made, but they will need better levels of organisation and improved strategies to be able to do this effectively.

The Makhado Municipality is now writing to the Director Generals of Agriculture and Land Affairs to request that the initiative be formally endorsed as a pilot, and that resources including staff are allocated to take it forward.

Nkuzi is working to better document the experience and lessons from the initiative so far. They will also produce manuals for the facilitation of such a process, and for the work to be carried out by the various government officials. Clear implementation guidelines are needed if officials are to shift from their current mode of operation.

Despite the challenges experienced, this and other initiatives that are trying to find and test alternative implementation strategies for land reform need to be supported.

Marc Wegerif works with the Nkuzi Development Association, a collegial organisation to AFRA.