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DEPARTMENT OF LAND AFFAIRS ANNUAL REPORT 2007/08

DEPARTMENT OF LAND AFFAIRS ANNUAL REPORT 2007/08. Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs 19 November 2008. Presented by Mr. Thozi Gwanya Director-General Department of Land Affairs. Strategic context.

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DEPARTMENT OF LAND AFFAIRS ANNUAL REPORT 2007/08

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  1. DEPARTMENT OF LAND AFFAIRS ANNUAL REPORT 2007/08 Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Land Affairs 19 November 2008 Presented by Mr. Thozi Gwanya Director-General Department of Land Affairs

  2. Strategic context • Contribution to poverty alleviation and economic development. • Interventions and participation of the State in the land market to accelerate land redistribution. • Enhanced access to and/ownership of land by people living on farms to improve their livelihoods and economic opportunities. • Development of capacity building models and programmes for land reform beneficiaries, employees of the Department and other key stakeholders.

  3. Strategic objective: Core objectives • Redistribution of 30% of white-owned agricultural land by 2014 for sustainable agricultural development. • Provision of tenure security that creates socio-economic opportunities for people living and working on farms in communal areas. • Provision of land for sustainable human settlements and industrial and economic development. • Provision of efficient land use and land administration services. • Provision of efficient State land management that supports development.

  4. Strategic objective: Core objectives cont. • Provision of skills development framework for land and agrarian reform to all relevant stakeholders. • Development of programmes for the empowerment of women, children and older persons within the context of the Department’s mandate.

  5. PROGRAMME 1: ADMINISTRATION • Includes the Office of the Director-General, Gender Unit, Monitoring and Evaluation, Security Management Services, Internal Audit, Human Capital and Organisational Development and Business Information Management. • A Secretariat was established to render secretariat support and ensure that decisions and actions taken are followed-up and implemented. • Cabinet memoranda are being monitored to determine its impact on departmental interest. • Commitment to women empowerment and attainment of gender equality through WID (Women in Development), WAD (Women and Development), GAD (Gender and Development) and working closely with WARD (Women in Agriculture and Rural Development).

  6. PROGRAMME 1: ADMINISTRATION cont. • The focus on Quality of Life Survey and the CLaRA baseline study. • Safety and security standards by means of security clearance, improved information and physical security. • Implementation of the new structure in two phases. • As at 31 March 2008 the vacancy rate was 27,41% however, significant progress has since been made to fill vacant positions. • A skills audit to determine skills and competencies of officials and a training programme to address development needs.

  7. PROGRAMME 1: ADMINISTRATION cont. • Bursaries to study in the fields of BSc Geomatics, Town and Regional Planning and Land Surveying. • 96 New bursaries were awarded. 221 Students are active in the bursary programme, 122 are studying towards diplomas and 99 for degrees. • There is a partnership agreement with the Universities of Cape Town and also KwaZulu-Natal in accepting survey/geomatics bursary holders.

  8. PROGRAMME1: ADMINISTRATION cont. • The Department participates actively in the review of the National Disability Policy Framework in The Presidency and has a vibrant Departmental Disability Forum. The Department has also employed 2,7% persons with disabilities but employment at senior management level still need to be looked at. • Batho Pele awareness workshops for officials and Project Khaedu where senior managers were trained and deployed to the coalface of service delivery.

  9. PROGRAMME 1: ADMINISTRATION cont. • The Department continues to consult and review: • land ownership by non-South Africans • willing-buyer willing-seller (WBWS) • The Land Redistribution for Agricultural Land (LRAD) grants to increase from R111 142 to R430 857. • Interaction with the South African Development Community (SADC) on land and agrarian reform issues. • Launched the Settlement Implementation Support (SIS) Strategy together with the Department of Agriculture (DoA) to align sustainable settlement.

  10. PROGRAMME 1: ADMINISTRATION (HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT) cont.PERSONNEL ESTABLISHMENT AND VACANCY RATIOS

  11. GROWTH IN CAPACITY FROM 2002 TO DATE

  12. GROWTH IN CAPACITY - CURRENT

  13. PROGRAMME 2: SURVEYS AND MAPPING • Due to a revised beacon maintenance schedule the National Control Survey System has been available to clients 98% of the time in the reporting year. • Trignet has been improved to ensure a reliable service by installing more base stations and replacement of ageing equipment and software, which resulted in the network being available 95% of the time. • The contribution to development projects for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) was significant and rated at 95% for completed projects. • An Atlas for visually impaired people was finalised in December 2007.

  14. PROGRAMME 3: CADASTRAL SURVEY MANAGEMENT • The function of approval of cadastral surveys is carried out in 6 offices, namely Pretoria, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, Bloemfontein , Polokwane and Nelspruit. • The turnaround time is 20 working days which is a world class performance (internationally – two months). • It aims to create a digital cadastre environment which consists of 3 components, alpha-numeric, document image and spatial components.

  15. PROGRAMME 4 : RESTITUTION • The Commission on Restitution of Land Rights has tabled its Annual Report 2007/08 before1 June 2008 and will therefore present its Annual Report to this Committee. • About 95% of the lodged 79 696 restitution claims have been settled and the outstanding claims are complex rural claims. • As at 31 October 2008, 2 265 794 hectares of land have been restored to 300 996 households. The Commission has settled 74 389 of the lodged land claims.

  16. CHALLENGES/WEAKNESSES AND STRATEGIES • Challenges in settling rural areas: • Nature of process • Deadlocks/issues with land owners • Disputes within claimant communities • Conflicts with Traditional leaders: jurisdiction and boundary disputes • Untraceable claimants • High cost of land • Strategies • Shortened project cycle • Implementing expropriation • Batching claims • Consultation with Traditional Authorities • Media Campaigns • Release of state land by other state departments for restitution purposes • Engagement with agricultural unions and land owners

  17. PROGRAMME 5: LAND REFORM • Consists of two sub-programmes, namely Redistribution and Tenure Reform, which transferred 385 projects in total to 7 895 beneficiaries with a total of 346, 011, 4969 hectares of land. • From 1994, through Redistribution and Tenure, 2 748 766 hectares of land was distributed to 170 883 beneficiaries. • Including Restitution about 4,8 million hectares of land has been delivered towards the 30% target since 1994. • 25, 2 million hectares (30% of 84 million hectares) by 2014.

  18. LAND DELIVERY IN HECTARES 17,537

  19. PROGRAMME 5: LAND REFORM cont. • LRAD AND Settlement and Production Land Acquisition (SPLAG) grants have been respectively reviewed to R111 152 and R430 857 per individual qualifying. • The process to review Act 126 of 1993 – The Provision of Land and Assistance Bill was started within the legislative framework. • Training sessions with implementers were conducted on LRAD, the Pro-Active Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS), Revised LRAD, Land Acquisition Share Acquisition (LASA) and the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). • Land rights awareness plans developed, a campaign was launched and a call centre is operational.

  20. PROGRAMME 5: LAND REFORM cont. • A farm worker survey has been completed. • The Communal Land Rights Act (CLaRA) has not been implemented as a result of it being in Court. • 220 000 State land properties audited. • 416 617 hectares of State land surveyed affecting 2800 properties. • Redistribution of land to vulnerable groups is encouraged and is work in progress.

  21. PROGRAMME 5: LAND REFORM cont. • Eastern Cape: 52 projects transferred – 27577,4587 ha • Free State: 60 projects transferred – 33,674,2912 ha • Gauteng: 45 projects transferred – 10,188.9268 ha • KwaZulu-Natal: 56 projects transferred – 33,735.0965 ha • Limpopo: 24 projects transferred – 11,082.0000 ha • Mpumalanga: 64 projects transferred – 50,524.9356 ha • Northern Cape: 17 projects transferred – 107,451.1016 ha • North West: 32 projects transferred – 42,252.5110 ha • Western Cape: 35 projects transferred – 30,552.1753 ha

  22. Economic growth, poverty alleviation & employment Contribution of land reform towards the economy

  23. PROGRAMME 6: SPATIAL PLANNING AND INFORMATION • The Land Use Management Bill was approved by Cabinet to be taken to Parliament. • The provincial scale land use maps were updated. • The National Committee for Spatial Information was appointed. • Continued discussion with South African Council of Planners towards the appointment of the new Council. • Maps available for all 9 provinces for purposes of integrated development planning. • Spatial data and analysis available for Agricultural Development Corridors.

  24. PROGRAMME 7: DEEDS REGISTRATION • An increase in registered land parcels from 7 753 429 in 2007 to 7 961 636 in 2008. • Deeds web searches from 1 348 735 in 2007 to 1 493 719 in 2008. • A Deeds Office was opened in Nelspruit and Mpumalanga. • A training manual and programme was supplied to Rwanda as the contribution towards SADC and other African countries. • The quality of Deeds was not challenged in Court. • Average time for registering a Deed is 6 days. • 50 interns were employed.

  25. FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE AND AUDIT OUTCOMES

  26. Six Years Expenditure Trends 99.5% 99,9% 73% 98% 97% 99%

  27. The Restitution and Land Reform branches accounts for 85% of the above budget. This commendable performance was as a result of the initiatives put in place to fast-track the restitution claims as well as the PLAS. Financial Performance for the year 2007/08

  28. Outcome of the Audit Report The Department received a qualified audit opinion on: • Rental Revenue Receivable from Leased Land. • Interest received on revenue and pre-payments. • (Commitments) Balance of Grants. • Tangible capital assets. • Biological assets.

  29. Progress: Rental Revenue Receivable from Leased Land A new debtors system (SLLDS) has been developed. This system will provide: • A comprehensive, complete and accurate database of leased land. • Management of the revenue collection and debtors management. • Asset management module for the management of PLAS assets. All Powers of Attorney (POA) with Members of the Executive Councils (MECs) have revised to exclude non agricultural land and they are in the process of approval. Challenges: SITA network is slowing down data capturing onto the new system. A parallel compensating control of creating a manual database is currently progressing well. Capacity is currently being created in the Provincial Land Reform Offices (PLROs) to manage the leases.

  30. Interest received on revenue and pre-payments • There is significant progress in the confirmation and reconciliations of interest paid to the Department by conveyancers. • Conveyancers have been requested to provide evidence in the form of bank statements. Those who are not co-operating are handled through legal services. • With regard to the 50% commitments paid to conveyancers, reconciliations have been done from 1999 to date. • Controls are in place for managing current payments to conveyancers. Compliance is enforced through monthly reconciliations, stricter payment controls and improved interactions with conveyancers.

  31. Commitments (Balance of Grants) Presently all the PLROs are engaged in a robust verification of the balances reported in the Annual Financial Statements (AFS). A target date of 8 December has been agreed upon for finalisation of the recons. Amounts that were inadvertently reported as BOG’s will be corrected and explained to the Auditor. A business case for the development of a new system for the management of BOG has just been concluded. It is envisaged that the system will be available by end January. Draft policies on the BOG management has also been finalised and circulated for comments to all relevant stakeholders. The policy and procedures will be rolled out to all offices during February 2009.

  32. Tangible and Biological Capital Assets • The Department has already conducted a comprehensive exercise of PLAS asset inspections. • The inspection of game will be incorporated in the independent asset verification which is set to take place from the last week of November 2008 to the end of January 2009. • The service provider has been tasked with the provision of a comprehensive report on all movable assets including livestock. The report should also provide recommendations with regard to the disposal of obsolete assets and revaluation of the existing assets for proper reporting in the AFS. • The acquisition of movable assets under PLAS has been kept on hold pending the implementation of improved controls relating to proper acquisition plans, maintenance and disposal of such assets for future acquisitions.

  33. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>……………… • Yes indeed, there is a concerted effort in the Department to clear all the audit queries before the end of the financial year. • This work is not limited to the report by the Auditor-General only, but spans through all internal control weaknesses identified by our internal audit.

  34. OVERVIEW • It is of vast importance that the pace of land reform is accelerated and that sustainability of emerging farmers is dramatically improved. • Together with the DoA, the LARP was approved to ensure that all stakeholders from public and private sectors are involved in the planning phase of land reform projects to ensure alignment of resources, implementation and support. • The Department made notable progress in the finalisation of the investigation aimed at providing recommendations for the reform of an old cadastral system.

  35. OVERVIEW cont… • The Department undertook major projects: • State Land Audit - the data of all 9 provinces are currently being synthesised and reconciled to enable better management of assets. • New Structure – it is seen as an integral enabler for ensuring that the new approach of accelerating land reform is undertaken. Job evaluations have been done but due to budget constraints posts will be filled in phases. • The Department has spent 99,5% of the allocated budget of R5,928 billion and there will be a significant shortfall in the current financial year.

  36. OVERVIEW cont… • The Deeds Office has an intake of 58 graduates and the Branch Land Reform is to employ 41 graduates. • The new structure will add 3571 additional posts to the Department. • An amount of R1, 885 million was received from the Belgian Technical Assistance for restitution post settlement. • The Department has through its land reform redistribution programmes; a prime responsibility of providing the poor with land for settlement and productive use in order to improved their livelihoods and to contribute to the social and economic development in the country.

  37. OVERVIEW cont. • In pursuit of the latter the Department provides grants and services at varying degrees and different land reform products. • In order to find a solution with the management of grants, the Department has already completed the auditing of the reconciliations done and an action plan is in place to address the control weaknesses. • We remain committed to deliver 30% of white –owned agricultural land by 2014.

  38. I THANK YOU

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