The land question in smallholder development in South Africa - Institutional Constraints to Small Farmer Development in Southern Africa - page 191

The result of the review is the on-going Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development
(LRAD) which was established in 2000 and began activities in August 2001. According to
a review by Swanepoel et al. (2004), the main element of LRAD is that it enlarged the size
of the grant per recipient. Any applicant, not just the very poor as defined under SLAG,
qualified for a minimum amount of R20,000 upon meeting the requirement to make an
own contribution of R5,000 (Swanepoel et al., 2004). A maximum grant of R100,000 can
be obtained but requires an own contribution of R400,000 (Swanepoel et al., 2004).
A special feature of the LRAD programme is that the own contribution of R5,000 to
qualify for the minimum grant amount of R20,000 can be in the form of applicant's labour
valued at going rates. The idea of the own contribution is to secure the commitment of
the applicant. It continues the legacy of its predecessor of being limited to previously
disadvantaged individuals, invariably from the black population. A minimum age-limit of
18 years was set in line with national norms. Applicants do not have to have agricultural
experience although it is considered essential for the success of the farm business. It is
required that the applicant submits a clear business plan which applicants can receive help
from the Department of Agriculture to prepare.
These modifications have, however, done little to significantly improve the pace of the
process. For instance, by February, 2005, the programme had managed to re-distribute
no more than 3.5 million hectares to some 168,000 households. In terms of total land re-
distributed, this means that only about 14.6% of the target has been attained in 11 years
(6 years since the programme was revised). If current rates do not change, the programme
may be able to achieve no more than 30% of its target overall by 2014. The achievement in
terms of human numbers is even more worrying, at a mere 4.8% of target, fuelling growing
concerns about the rural pauperization as the only visible outcome of the decade-long
agricultural restructuring programme. Unemployment rates are still high in the country;
on the basis of the broad definition of unemployment, jobless rates in the country stood at
about 31% in 1993 (on the eve of the inception of majority rule in 1994), and have been
deteriorating ever since, to about 38% by 1997, rising to about 39% in 2005, and not much
different today (UNDP, 2007).
Land restitution
The other component of the land reform programme is accessLand Restitution by which
presently dispossessed persons or groups (including communities) that could establish pre-
1913 ownership of land can have such ownership restored. According to the White Paper
on the Land Reform Programme (DoA/DLA, 2005), Land Restitution involves 'returning
land, or compensating victims for land rights lost because of racially discriminatory laws
passed since 19 June 1913'. Official estimates put the number of affected persons at more
than 3.5 million who were forced out of their original land and compelled to settle in