THE government’s programmes to address land reform, rural poverty and food insecurity have had little success and its redistribution process “appears to be ripe for elite capture”, researchers at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) have concluded.
President Jacob Zuma elevated rural development to one of the top five strategic priorities of his administration and established a Department of Rural Development and Land Reform in 2009. It adopted the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme to improve social and economic wellbeing in rural areas.
A green paper on rural development was to be drafted and tabled in the Cabinet before the end of the 2012-13 fiscal period, but its contents and status remain under wraps, HSRC researchers Peter Jacobs and Tim Hart write in this year’s State of the Nation review.
