Land reform a crucial test for minister Nyhontso amid ANC's legacy of broken promises

The ANC has over 30 years dismally failed to execute the fundamental promise of our freedom Struggle – land reform and restitution. This is a crime against the humanity of countless communities who have been betrayed.

The hopes of many now rest with Minister of Land Reform and Rural Development, Mzwanele Nyhontso, who is also the leader of the PAC, to seize this failure and turn it into an opportunity for the PAC to demonstrate how its fundamental commitment to land reform and restitution can turn our country into a successful model for the post-colonial return of the land to its people to create ecosystems of thriving communities.

The ANC playbook on land reform and restitution is the same across the country: false promises of restoration; long delays in execution of the legal aspect of title to the land; demands by officials that business plans for redevelopment fit their own conditions of appropriateness; bureaucratic delays to engage and hand over the development capital needed into properly set up non-profit companies by representative Community Property Associations; imposition of accountants of dubious connections with officials; and the inexplicable disappearances/blocking of access to funds for use to initiate the development of the properties.

I am witness to, and a participant in, the 1,500 hectare Kranspoort Farm restitution process dating back to 1996. The playbook in our case is orchestrated by Dr Alidzulwi Naledzani, who has publicly declared himself the chief of Kranspoort without whom nothing can happen on the farm.

The long drawn-out process of restoring ownership and providing the legally mandated capital development funds culminated in a business plan drawn up by a consultant hired by us with a total requirement of R100-million being presented in 2016. The initial enthusiasm to support the business plan by the Limpopo Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development turned into silence for years.

The Kranspoort Community Property Association has had a running battle with an obstructionist department since 2019 after much to-ing and fro-ing. This resulted in a modified business plan with a R24-million capital requirement.

Only R11-million was ultimately disbursed with extraordinary requirements. These included use of a department-designated accountant that has no basis in law nor in terms of the Public Finance Management Act. The Kranspoort Community Property Association has an established non-profit company that is a legal person entitled to conduct its business within the accountabilities set out by law.

Bullying and delays

Missed opportunity