Vacant state land available for Limpopo farmers

The government offers successful land applicants a 30-year leasehold, with an option to buy.

The Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza announced the process to be followed by members of the public in applying for available agricultural state land as part of the government contribution to the land reform programme.

Didiza announced that in the next week, government will issue advertisement notices of 896 farms measuring 700 0000 hectares of under-utilised or vacant state land in seven provinces including Limpopo.

She said that the advertisement notices will be in the local, district and provincial newspapers, websites and local radio stations.

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Application forms will be made available in the district offices and provincial offices of the Departments of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development as well as municipal district offices. After the closing date, all applications received will be compiled and captured in a database per district in each province.

The District Beneficiary Screening Committee will screen the application, interview against the criteria as set out in the advertisement notice and make recommendations to the provincial technical committee for consideration. The PTC will evaluate and review the District Committee ’s recommendations and submit to the national department for approval.

The National Selection and Approval Committee will consider all recommendations and approve suitable applications and both the successful and unsuccessful applicants will be informed of the outcome in writing. Didiza said that unsuccessful applicants will have an opportunity to register their appeals to the Land Allocation Appeals Committee.

She said that all beneficiaries who have been allocated state land and signed lease agreements will be subjected to a compulsory training programme.

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The training programme will include entry level training on the commodity of their choice, basic record keeping, and basic financial management as well as enterprise development.

She further said that the lease agreement signed between the State and the beneficiary will be a legally binding contractual agreement and will not be transferable under any circumstances.

The beneficiary will not be allowed to sublease or sublet a portion of land or the whole of the farm under the leasehold between him/her and the state, has an obligation to maintain all the infrastructure and upkeep of the land allocated to him/her, will have to manage, maintain and keep the record of assets received from the state and that any investment made by the beneficiary must be recorded, valued and reported to the state.

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She said that beneficiaries will pay a monthly or annual rental fee per hectare determined by the state, consistent with the value of the land in line with area valuation, a credit management system will be put in place to manage debt recovery and management and that failure to comply with any of the contractual obligations listed above, the state will consider the option of terminating the lease.

Didiza said that a department official will ensure that basic infrastructure is in good shape and register the infrastructure and assets on the farm, issue monthly invoices to the beneficiary with payment due date, undertake quarterly inspection visits by the land administration unit to ensure that State infrastructure and assets are well kept and table annual reports on the performance of the lease and productivity of the land to the minister.