Pretoria - Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti says youth empowerment will remain a priority in his department’s economic transformation programme.
“In this regard, the department is in the process of establishing a Mega Co-operative for the 14 000-strong National Rural Youth Service Corps (Narysec) participants.
“The envisaged co-operative will be member-owned, with strategic support from the department and other sister departments such as the Departments of Trade and Industry, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and Small Business Development, the private sector and state-owned entities,” he said.
Minister Nkwinti was speaking during his department’s Budget Vote in Parliament on Wednesday.
Narysec was established in September 2010 to recruit and develop rural youth, so they can perform community service in their own communities. The programme has been hailed as a skills development hub, with 6 000 Narysec participants graduating in a ceremony earlier this year.
Developing women
Women development is also a main concern for the department. Recently, it launched the first rural women-owned arts and crafts retail shop and warehouse in Durban.
Minister Nkwinti said this will serve as a market and retail facility for enterprises of rural women in arts and crafts.
Last weekend, the department met 477 delegates from 93 arts and crafts co-operatives, where a decision was taken to establish a Mega Co-operative.
However, Minister Nkwinti said more details will be given by his deputy Candith Mashego-Dlamini.
Focus for 2014/15
The department, through its Rural Enterprises and Industries Development Branch, has prioritised five commodities. These are:
• grains: maize, wheat, soya beans and dry beans;
• vegetables, including indigenous vegetables and medicinal plants;
• livestock: red meat and wool;
• poultry: caged broilers and free range, and
• arts, crafts & apparel.
Minister Nkwinti said the focus of his department in the 2014/15 financial year will be on communal land tenure, communal property associations, regulation of land holdings, electronic deeds registration and the extension of security of tenure for farm dwellers, tenants and workers.
Simplifying deeds registration
Minister Nkwinti said the electronic system they plan to implement through the Electronic Deeds Registration Bill, will allow them to achieve universal, countrywide access to deeds registration and Surveyor-General services.
This will decrease the turnaround time for approval and registration of property.
The Deeds Office processes almost a million registrations per annum, but the current process is manual.
“We believe this is a progressive piece of legislation that will have an immediate impact once operational. It will allow for the current paper based system for lodgement and registration of deeds, which requires the conveyancer to appear in front of the Registrar of Deeds, to lodge electronically,” said Minister Nkwinti.
The second bill that his department will bring before Parliament this year is the Regulation of Land Holdings Bill, 2014.
“This bill seeks to provide for the establishment and composition of a Land Commission, the appointment, qualifications and remuneration of members of the Land Commission, the classification of controlled land, the determination of land ceilings and the regulation of land ownership by foreign nationals,” explained the minister.
Through the bill, Minister Nkwinti said they want to provide a legal framework for the disclosure of race, gender and nationality by owners of land and property (both natural and juristic).
He said it will provide a transparent and more conducive regulatory environment for the generation and utilisation of policy-relevant information on land ownership and usage. - SAnews.gov.za
