The Select Committee on Land and Mineral Resources having conducted oversight at the Council of Geosciences (CGS), the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP), from 21 – 22 October 2014 reports as follows:

1. Background and Introduction

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) and the Ingonyama Trust Board presented their fourth quarter performance and financial reports for 2014-15. The Committee also received at status report on the Riemvasmaak community claim.

The draft report on the public hearings on the Implementation of the Recapitalization and Development Programme (RDP) of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (the Department) was presented before the Committee for approval and comments. The main issues that arose in the approval of the draft report were the oversight role of the Committee, sustainability and implementation.

The Committee received submissions from the Langa Livestock Farmers Association, The Congress of South African Trade Unions and its affiliate, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union, the Legal Resources Centre and the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies on the second day of public hearings on the Recapitalisation and Development Programme (RADP).

The Chairperson introduced the first day of public hearings on the Recapitalisation and Development Programme (RADP) in the agricultural sector by noting that the Committee had done oversight in the Northern Cape of the farms that were beneficiaries of the programme, and now wanted to hear the outcomes of the independent evaluation of the programme, and also hear from beneficiaries.

The preservation, development and sustainable use of agricultural land are of vital importance to ensure longterm food security in South Africa. These principles of food security as well as an integrated, inclusive rural economy underpin the core focus areas of the National Development Plan, Vision 2030 (NDP).

In Mozambique, changes in land access and use are shaping new landscapes, often at the expense of the poor. Despite progressive land legislation, elite groups and vested interests are consolidating land holdings while peasant producers are being dispossessed of their land and access to fertile plots is becoming increasingly difficult.

At the first conference on land redistribution in South Africa, held in Johannesburg in 1993, Cyril Ramaphosa, the then secretary general of the ANC, noted that South Africa is not unique in its unequal land distribution but rather in the policy measures that have led to this situation (ANC, 1993). In contrast to most other countries with unequal land distribution, South Africa has a history of specific racial policies with clear implications for land distribution and ownership.

Message from KDNG: "As a network of residents of Kachin State, we, the Kachin Development Networking Group, have been monitoring plans by the stateowned China Power Investment Corporation and Burma’s military regime to build seven dams on the Irrawaddy River and its two main tributaries. In 2007 we published the report, "Damming the Irrawaddy" which surveyed the environment and peoples in the affected area and analyzed the negative impacts of these dams. Today construction of the 2,000-megawatt Chibwe Dam on the N’Mai River is already underway.

Message from KDNG: "As a network of residents of Kachin State, we, the Kachin Development Networking Group, have been monitoring plans by the stateowned China Power Investment Corporation and Burma’s military regime to build seven dams on the Irrawaddy River and its two main tributaries. In 2007 we published the report, "Damming the Irrawaddy" which surveyed the environment and peoples in the affected area and analyzed the negative impacts of these dams. Today construction of the 2,000-megawatt Chibwe Dam on the N’Mai River is already underway.

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