An assessment of public support given to land reform commonage farmers by local and provincial government and their perfomance: A case study of Makana Local Municipality in Eastern Cape

Access to land is very important for previously disadvantage people from the countries where agriculture is one of the main sources for employment in order to improve their livelihoods. Worldwide, Land Reform arose mainly because of inequalities of resources. In South Africa the Land Reform started in as early as 1658 where blacks were not afforded equal opportunities as white people and therefore off farm land and properties. When South Africa’s first democratic government came into power in 1994, one of its goals was to redress the injustice of the past and give back land to the previously disadvantaged people through various land reform programmes. One of the components of the land reform programme was the provision of commonages lands to urban municipalities for use by the urban poor. The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform acquired commonages land for the municipalities for the purpose of agricultural production. The study focused on the Municipal Commonage Programme and this has been done by assessing the public support given to land reform commonage farmers by local and provincial government and their performance in Makana Local Municipality in Eastern Cape. The study showed that land reform commonage emerging farmers are confronted by numerous challenges such as poor infrastructure, access to markets, mentorship, credit, transport by beneficiaries, lack of support from government departments and lack of co-ordination between government departments. These and other challenges ultimately hamper beneficiaries from making effective use of land. The study was done on eight commonages in Makana Municipality. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel. Data collection entailed questionnaire, interviews and focus group discussions. In view of the challenges for commonage farmers, this study provides recommendation for improving the commonage land reform redistribution projects. Current management attempts are not ensuring the efficient equitable and sustainable use of these commonages. Municipal Commonage should be better integrated into agrarian reform through leases and an efficient Commonage Farmers Support Programmes.Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science and Agriculture, 201