Question NW1229 to the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
04 May 2023 - NW1229
Mbabama, Ms TM to ask the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
With reference to the reply to question 1719 on 4 October 2018 regarding the extent of land owned by his department and entities reporting to him leased out for private use, which the then Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform indicated as being approximately 2 309 078 hectares, what (a) improvement has there been to date in the total number of hectares leased out for private use, (b) is the total rand value of each piece of land leased and (c) is the (i) location and (ii) size of each piece of land?
Reply:
(a) A total of 2 124 144 hectares of land is currently leased for private use. The methodology used in 2018 and prior years has since been discontinued as part of measures towards improving the quality of information. For instance, in 2018 and preceding years, where a farm consisted of several lease units and only one lease unit has a lease, the entire farm was regarded as leased and, in the calculations, the total extent of the farm was used. The Department has since improved the methodology to calculate only the extent per lease/land unit with a lease hence the number of hectares of land leased out has been rectified from 2 309 078 hectares to 2 124 144 hectares.
(b),(c)(i),(ii) Please refer to Annexure A: List of Properties with leases.