Department of Rural Development and Land Reform on its 2015/16 Annual Report with FFC input

Author: Parliamentary Monitoring Group

The Fiscal and Financial Commission (FCC) presented a summary of its report that evaluated the financial status of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (the Department), and made some recommendations for the forthcoming year.

The FFC highlighted that the Department bore a responsibility to develop rural economic opportunities and ensure food security through: job creation, through land reform and agricultural development. In particular, emphasis was placed on promoting small scale irrigated farming, creating security of tenure for communal farmers, especially women and investing in infrastructure and support services.

78% of the Department’s budget was spent in the Land Reform, Restitution and Rural Development programmes, with transfers and subsidies taking up the largest slice of the budget.