President Cyril Ramaphosa, on Saturday, handed over R25.5-million worth of land and title deeds to members of the Tafelkop Farmers Association at Ga-Sekhukhune in the Limpopo’s Groblersdal district.

The President was accompanied by the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Patricia de Lille; Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza; Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola; as well as the Acting Minister in the Presidency responsible for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Khumbudzo Ntshavheni.

The handover ceremony was the culmination of a land reform process.

The deeds were registered earlier in 2021 and the lands are now registered in the name of the farmers. A total of 32 households are supported by this land, and farming activities provide employment to 128 permanent workers and up to 320 seasonal workers.

The farmers supply local food stores, school feeding schemes as well as Pretoria and Johannesburg fresh produce markets. The land is currently being used to farm tobacco, cotton and fresh produce, and has potential for more farming activities.

“This land is this community’s most valuable asset, and now it is officially yours and you will now be able to use it as security to secure loans to expand, to secure long-term supply contracts as well as to form partnerships with bigger commercial farmers,” Ramaphosa said to the community.

He added that the prospects for the agricultural sector provided an opportunity for further public-private partnerships to promote transformation and ensure sustainable growth.

“We welcome the market opportunities offered by prominent retail groups to the Tafelkop Farmers Association, and we also urge project leaders to continue to seek more market opportunities for the producers to ensure their viability,” Ramaphosa said and added that the tittle deeds would bring justice to a dispossessed community.

“It gives us hope, because it has shown that with the right support and the right opportunities, the agricultural industry can be transformed for the benefit of our country,” he stated.

To date government has redistributed over five-million hectares of land, totalling around 5 500 farms to more than 300 000 beneficiaries. So far, the land restitution process has also benefited over two-million land claimants and resulted in the transfer of around 2.7-million hectares.

“We celebrate our progress, because day by day our land reform programme is gaining momentum because land reform isn’t just in the interests of redress, justice and social cohesion, it is also about economic development,” Ramaphosa added.

The President stated that agriculture and the agriculture value chain could transform rural economies and that in Ga-Sekhukhune, agricultural development forms part of the District Rural Development Plan.

“Through the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan we are developing the agricultural sector and making it more inclusive so that it can play an even greater role in driving inclusive growth. Our Constitution obliges the State to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within our available resources, to facilitate equitable access to land. The release of State-owned land is one of the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture,” he stated.

Government is forging ahead with the process of amending Section 25 of the Constitution to enable land expropriation without compensation, all the while ensuring that agricultural output is improved and expanding the property rights of all South Africans.

“There is currently a public participation process around the Expropriation Bill, which outlines the circumstances under which land may be expropriated both with and without compensation,” Ramaphosa said.

Ramaphosa further said that a land and agrarian reform agency would be established over the next financial year to fast-track land reform.