NEWS & VIEWS • MARCH 2025 7 The Act recognises and entrenches principles such as agro-ecosystem management; productivity, stability, resiliency, viability, and equitability. These principles, so the Act goes on to record, apply to all agricultural land within the Republic and must be applied when: “(a) assessing applications for agro-ecosystem authorisations; (b) determining norms and standards; (c) developing provincial agricultural sector plans; (d) declaring protected agricultural areas; and (e) all actions and decisions made in respect of agricultural land.” Importantly, this Act expressly includes Forestry and covers the forestry and logging industry. “Agricultural purposes” is defined in the Act as meaning practices associated with the use of agricultural land for crop and animal production, keeping of animals, including wild animals, forestry and logging, fishing and aquaculture, including the use of land for structures, buildings and dwelling units reasonably necessary for, or related to, the agricultural use of land. “Agriculture” is further defined in the Act as meaning the science, practice, occupation or economic activity in all its aspects concerned with the keeping or active production of useful plants, fungi or animals for— (a) bio-fuel; (b) fibre; (c) food; or (d) other agricultural goods or services, and includes, in varying degrees, the preparation or marketing of the resulting products. This bodes well for challenging and objecting to any developments, project and/or mining and prospecting applications on farms, for example, where the intended land use does not comply with the principles set out above, or where the ultimate result will be a destruction of the land or undermining of the sustainability of the environment. The Act further mandates Government to develop Provincial agricultural sector plans which, inter alia, “coordinate and harmonise agricultural land use policies, plans, programmes and decisions of organs of state aimed at promoting, achieving and preserving a sustainable agricultural environment”. Government further has the ability under the Act to declare nationally and provincially protected agricultural areas and to ensure that only approved activities for “agricultural purposes” takes place in such areas. The reactions to the Act have been quite mixed with a number of political parties and stakeholders being quite disparaging of the Act, believing it to be open to exploitation. Several agricultural organisations are concerned that these provisions could give government the power to prescribe to individual enterprises what they should do regarding production; for example, prescribe which crops to plant. It may therefore have the potential to limit the landowner’s ability to determine how the land they own should be utilised and what is the most appropriate use of such land. Agriculture union TLU SA says “the Preservation and Development of Agricultural Land Act is nothing more than a veil for greater state control, and a direct threat to the future of agriculture in South Africa. The law signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday, aims to support long-term food production. TLU SA’s, Bennie Van Zyl, says the law runs almost parallel to the Expropriation Act and signals a planned attack on farmers’ independence and decisionmaking ability” [Bulletin, 30 January 2025, Thuso Mokoena] However, on a positive note the objective of the law is to protect agricultural land against short-sighted residential, industrial and especially mining development. Strip mining removes the arable topsoil to exploit the minerals deeper down. Sometimes, the consequences are irreversible. The law determines principles that need to be implemented when using agricultural land for other purposes. It also stipulates lists of impermissible activities as well as activities that may continue without obtaining permission have to be compiled. This can provide greater direction for land use and sustainable activities. AgriSA, Kwanalu and its members have actively engaged in shaping this legislation and they believe that it “provides significant protection for South African agriculture by strengthening landuse limitations and ensuring a stable, thriving agricultural sector. The Act’s effective future implementation relies heavily on the creation of further regulations and norms and standards”. They go on to state that “we will continue to engage with government to support effective implementation and safeguard the interests of our members. As recorded at the outset, time will tell whether this Act will be deployed for the benefit of farmers and the environment, or it will be exploited and abused and used to control the use of agriculture according to someone’s agenda. It may be that like other legislation, it becomes a white elephant or relic that is very seldom used if at all. Watch this space!
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