Private partnerships are vital in land restitution programmes
When communities have land restored to them, only proper facilitation, oversight and expert advisory teams can create trust and ensure a common purpose
When Mpumalanga’s Moletele community got its land back, having successfully filed a restitution claim, it found much of it to be barren, without water infrastructure and no equipment for farming. The community had their farms restored in 2009 following the forced removals of the 1970s. The land claims were gazetted in 2004 and the first farms were returned in 2007. The Moletele Communal Property Association (CPA) was then registered to manage and operate the farms. "We had to evaluate which model would suit the community when a private partner was brought to the party because we couldn’t use the farm as collateral to raise funds," said CPA chairman Hezekiel Nkosi, speaking at a media roundtable on partnerships for land reform in Sandton on Tuesday. The land received was in Hoedspruit, an area that enjoys good soils and climatic conditions that favour mango and citrus production. Nkosi said social stability in the community, along with trust between the community and the private play...
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