While South Africa’s land reform programme had not been all smooth sailing, it would be hasty and premature to suggest that the process should be written off, the Vumelana Advisory Fund said yesterday.
The non-profit, public-benefit organisation’s CEO Peter Setou said it was equally disingenuous to opine that there were no success stories that had emanated from this important programme, which sought to redress past injustices that saw many communities being forcibly removed from their ancestral land.
“Despite the documented failures of the land reform programme, there is equally a body of evidence that attests to the success of the programme, in particular in the ecotourism sector,” Setou said.
“As South Africa celebrates Heritage Month, with a renewed focus on stimulating tourism, it is instructive to examine the impact of the land reform programme on tourism in South Africa.”
He said that many discussions on land reform erroneously looked at it through the limited prism of land allocated for agricultural purposes only.
Setou said land reform involved the restitution and redistribution of land for use in agriculture, cultural preservation, commercial use, and for ecotourism and settlement purposes.
Vumelana placed the impact of land reform in tourism as September is Tourism Month.
“It is worth noting that 80% of South Africa’s land is used for agriculture according to the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries. Of these, about 11% is arable land and 69% is used for grazing purposes. There are therefore vast tracts of land which are and can be used for ecotourism purposes or be repurposed for ecotourism to create real jobs and income.”
Setou said as an organisation that had provided post-settlement support to many beneficiary communities over the last 12 years, they were in the advantageous position of having witnessed first-hand the impact of the land reform programme on the tourism sector in the country.
It had seen how the programme had economically uplifted claimant communities, brought about social cohesion and promoted nature conservation and cultural preservation, he said.
According to the organisation, there was general agreement that the tourism sector could play an important role in kick-starting economic growth and creating much-needed employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in South Africa.
Since its inception, Vumelana Advisory Fund had concluded 26 projects, facilitating community private partnerships (CPPs) between land reform beneficiaries and private investors. Of those projects, 13 were in the tourism sector.
These projects have the combined potential to generate more than R720 million of investment within the tourism sector if successfully implemented, and to create or save more than 1 500 jobs and benefit more than 6 700 households.
These tourism projects include the Barokologadi CPA near the world-famous Madikwe Game Reserve in the North-West, Kgalagadi in the Northern Cape, and Bhangazi at the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in KwaZulu- Natal, among others.
Setou said they had been acutely mindful that the euphoria that accompanied the restitution of land after a successful land claim had been awarded was often followed by despair as claimant communities lacked the resources to put their land to productive use.
“It is for this reason that we developed a tailored partnership model – CPPs – to facilitate mutually beneficial partnerships between land reform beneficiary communities and private investors,” Setou said.
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