15 May 2013

15 May 2013

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Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Rural Development and Land Reform

Further deliberations on the Strategic Plan and the Annual Performance Plan of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform

Mr P Sekawana

Acting Deputy Director-General: Corporate Support Services

INTRODUCTION

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The Purpose of this presentation is to respond to follow-up questions from the Portfolio Committee on the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform’s:• Amended Strategic Plan: 2011-2014• Annual Performance Plan: 2013-2014

Programme 1: Administration

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No.

Portfolio Committee Question/remarks Responses

1 Draft Human Resource Development Strategy 2013 -2016 (version 1/2013) was presented before the Committee. The Committee notes the following: “The HR Development programmes should be aimed at furthering and supporting the strategic goals and objectives of the Department and to improve the skills levels in the Country as a whole”. The Committee notes that there are indications of non-alignment of the HRD Strategy and the Organisational Structure. For example, The HRD Strategy’s strategic goal 4 targets two branches REID and RID. According to the Strategic Plan and the APP, the Department has no branch know as REID. The HRD Strategy is in its draft form and there is nowhere in the Strategic Plan nor the APP where this strategy should be finalised and be implemented.

Attachment 1: Presentation explains that the Branch Social Technical Rural Livelihoods and Institutional Facilitation (STRIF) has been replaced by the Branch Rural Enterprise and Industrial Development (REID)Finalisation of the Draft HRD Strategy will form part of the CD:HR and D:HRD Operational Plan and Performance Agreement for 2013-2014

Attachments 2&3:Indicates that STRIF to REID changes were made in the document, glossary and old presentation of 23 April 2013 for easy reference


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No. Portfolio Committee Question/remarks Responses

2 The Committee has not been briefed about the Organisational Renewal Plan nor does it have in its possession the same plan. For purposes of Parliamentary oversight, the Committee should be provided with the mentioned plan in order determine what the 55% or 60% (quarterly targets) of the plan represents.

Attachment 4: See Attached Annexure on Organisational Renewal Plan

3 The Committee has asked for information about the branches which managed to receive bonuses. This information still outstanding. Need to assess performance plans for those branches.

Attachments 5,6,7 & 8 :Attached Annexure 5 on Updated Performance Agreements 2011/2012, Annexure 6 Status report on payment of performance Bonuses, Annexure 7 Circular 31 of 2013, Annexure 8 SMS Status report


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No.

Portfolio Committee Question/remarks Responses

4 The reports by the Public Service Commission, the Auditor-General and the DPME raises, as the Committee has done in its budget review recommendations reports (BRRRs), the concerns about the Department’s inability to meet some of its targets. For example, the state land audits, redistributing 30% of white-owned agricultural land, finalisation of Project Kgolaganyo, settlement of all land claims by the 2013. The committee concluded that there are a range of reasons for this failure to meet the set targets; one of those is the capacity of the department to implement the programmes.

TO BE DEALT WITH BY BRANCHES DURING THEIR PRESENTATIONS


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5 Recommendations of the Public Service Commission and the Auditor-General to address issues of financial management and governance as well as the failures of land reform are vitally important. Analysis of the Strategic Plan, especially the APP, it is unclear whether the Department has considered the recommendations of the Public Service Commission and the Auditor-General. The Committee, therefore, wishes to further engage in discussion with the Department about its responses to the presentations made to the Committee as well as identifying how the planning processes of the Department could improve on these matters

The Department has indeed considered the recommendations of the Public Service Commission and AG’s report on the improvement of service.The involvement of DPME and Treasury in the development of our MTSF is well underway with meetings having taken place and a few more planned.

Programme 3: Rural Development

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6 What are the plans for rural development in the 23 District identified for intervention in terms of the rural development programme? The Committee requests the Department to present particular projects (including sites) that will be implemented in this financial year. It is known that there are 65 CRDP sites across the country. The APP lacks clarity in relation to the particular location of projects in the 23 District sites.

Annexure 9Detailed list of projects attached


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7 Strategic objective 5.3 “Recapitalisation and development support provided to land reform beneficiaries and rural communities by 2014”. The Department should provide further details about recapitalisation of land reform projects, as implemented within this programme of rural development. It would help the Committee to specify how many land reform projects are going to be supported under the programme of rural development. For example, social facilitation and support to CPAs and Trusts as identified by the Department’s own Annual Report on the Communal Property Associations Report (2009).

- Branch REID is using NARYSEC youth to do household profiling on identified land reform and restitution farms to identify interventions needed and address accordingly through REID and RID.

- Branch REID also through the assistance of NARYSEC will ensure social facilitation through the establishment of functional Councils of Stakeholders in rural development programme and together with land reform and restitution address social facilitation issues where required on these farms.


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7 The Department, having implemented CRDP for the last three years, should be in a position to measure the outcomes and impact of the programme. What is the impact of CRDP interventions on beneficiary households? An in-depth qualitative research on this aspect is needed.

The Department in conjunction with the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in The Presidency is currently undertaking an evaluation of the CRDP as to whether it is achieving its policy goals and how the programme can be strengthened and up-scaled through learning from what has been done. In this process the impact of the programme on beneficiary households would necessarily be considered. Both Branches REID and RID are participating in this evaluation process.

Programme 4: Restitution

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No Portfolio Committee Question/remarks

Responses

9 The President announced the reopening of the lodgement of land claims during this year (2013) which marks the centenary of the Natives Land Act of 1913. An elephant in the room is that we do not know how many of the settled land claims are finalised. The Commission should provide this information.

Claims are fully settled only when the full extent of all the portions claimed in a claim have all been signed off by the Minister in a S42d memorandum or memoranda. A claim is only counted as settled when it is fully settled i.e. when the full extent has been dealt with in a S42d.Due to the physical extent of certain claims (i.e. the high number of property parcels under claim), it is often necessary to deal with sections of the property under claim in a phased approach (to restore at least a portion of the land under claim faster) and deal with more complex matters in future phases. This is necessary as it is often difficult to negotiate with a great many land owners concurrently, some land owners need longer period to conclude on negotiations or demand further research, investigation or valuations to be done. In certain cases one or more properties may need to be expropriated on order to fully settle a claim.


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9 The Committee has also found out that land claims are being settled in phases (in part). The Commission states over 95% of lodged land claims are settled. Of that 95% settled, how much is settled 100% and how much is settled in phases.

The 95% of lodged claims referred to has been fully settled, i.e. the full extent of the claim restored. The 5% (i.e. 2716 up to end October 2012) has not been counted as settled. The 5% are therefore the claims that are claims that are currently being dealt with as “phased claims” as well as those claims that are yet to be researched. There are 750 claims that have been given to the HSRC to research in 2013/14.


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No. Portfolio Committee

Question/remarksResponses

9 The APP shows that the Department will only complete a research report during the last quarter of the 2013/14 financial year. There is no indication of processes toward the reopening of land claims in this year. The only thing is that under legislation, the Restitution of Land Rights Act Amendment Bill will be tabled before Cabinet. Further than that there is no information.

Of the 76 980 claims that have been settled fully, as per the description above and counted up to October 2012, 59 513 has been finalised.A claim is finalised when the full extent of the settled claim has been executed e.g. if 10 properties were to be restored in terms of the S42d, all 10 properties have been transferred to the beneficiaries. Alternatively, if 96 beneficiaries were to be paid an amount of R12,5million, all 96 beneficiaries have been paid and the full amount of R12,5million has been disbursed.


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No. Portfolio Committee Question/remarks

Responses

10 Other projects: The Department has been working on Project Kgolaganyo, APP to relocate all of its Tshwane-based staff and operations to a single office campus. It anticipated taking occupation in April 2013. The APP indicates that R96, 000.00 has been allocated for this project. The APP fails to state when the project is likely to be concluded, all that is stated in the Strategic Plan is that the Department intended to take occupation of the new campus in April 2013. The Department should provide update on this project, costs incurred so far and future plans , when the project would be finalized, and the occupation of the new offices/campus.

In terms of the department’s initial plans of the PPP project, it had envisaged to take occupancy to the new building at the beginning of the financial year 2013/14. However, disputes on the appointment of the preferred service provider for the construction part caused serious delays on this project. Currently, the department is in a process of obtaining Treasury Approval (TA) 3 which will lead to the signing of the contract with the appointed service provider to commence construction on site. This process will also concretize details regarding completion date of the entire project and the date of occupancy by the department.The department had anticipated that it will spend R96 million for unitary payments in the financial year under review . however, due to earlier mentioned delays it is unlikely that same will be spent."

Programme 5: Land Reform & Recapitalisation

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8 Strategic Objective 5.4; “Tenure security for people living on commercial farms and communal areas provided. The Committee noted that the Draft Policy Framework on Communal Land Tenure would be completed during the fourth quarter of 2013/14. Against the backdrop of the Constitutional Court decision on CLRA, the Committee wishes to further discussion with the department about this plans and lack of clear indicators which shows proactive ways in which the Department will ensure tenure security on communal areas. What is the link between recapitalisation work done under this programme and the work that is done under rural development?

Annexure 10Detailed presentation attached

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