The Comprehensive Rural Development Programme is the government’s new weapon in the fight against rural poverty and degradation

Creating vibrant, equitable and sustainable rural communities; redistributing 30% of the country’s agricultural land; improving food security of the rural poor; and empowering teenagers through the National Rural Youth Services Corps (NARYSEC) programme to embark on socio-economic development actions in rural areas – these form the core of the focus of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, with the dynamic Gugile Nkwinti as its minister and chief executive officer.

The department’s vision is encapsulated in the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP), which is to create vibrant, equitable and sustainable rural communities, said Nkwinti in an exclusive interview with Black Business Quarterly. It includes redistributing 30% of the country’s agricultural land and improving food security of the rural poor.

Creating business opportunities, decongesting and rehabilitating overcrowded former homeland areas and expanding opportunities for women, youth, people with disabilities and older persons who stay in rural areas also form part and parcel of the focus of the department.

The ultimate vision of creating vibrant, equitable and sustainable rural communities will be achieved through a three-pronged strategy, said Nkwinti. This strategy will be based on a co-ordinated and integrated broad-based agrarian transformation, strategically increasing rural development and an improved land reform programme.

He added that the fight against poverty still remained the cornerstone of the government’s focus and, furthermore, that a new economic and developmental trajectory was required for the country to address food insecurity and poverty in the country, particularly in the rural areas.

Rural development became the fourth of five priorities of the government. Consequently, a new ministry and department of rural development and land reform was established to deliver on this mandate.

The Youth Services Corps

Nkwinti said NARYSEC is a flagship of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and is targeted at youth in rural areas across South Africa.

Rural development is one of the five key priorities of the government. Others are creation of decent work and sustainable livelihood, education, fight against crime and corruption as well as health.

It is no coincidence that the youth in rural areas have been invited to come on board to be part of or take initiatives in building the foundation for sustainable socio-economic development in rural areas.

“With this NARYSEC programme, as government we are proud to say we will make sure that the youth in rural areas do not remain on the margins of society. They will have the knowledge and the know-how to drive the process of a better life for all and become part of the mainstream economy,” said the minister.

Ten thousand reasons to launch NARYSEC

The objective of NARYSEC is to recruit and develop youth in rural areas, aged between 18 and 35 years, to be paraprofessionals who will provide community service in their communities.

“The programme is aimed at empowering the youth with various skills and is expected to create about 10 000 opportunities for at least four youths from each of the 3 000 rural wards in the country, including youth with disabilities,” said Nkwinti.Successful candidates will undergo an intensive training programme, based on needs identified during an induction and approved by the department, and will receive a monthly stipend for a two-year duration.

Skills development will include discipline, patriotism, lifeskills, rights awareness and specific skills areas empowering youth to change rural areas.Upon completion of the two-year training programme, candidates will work in their communities, providing services in local socio-economic development.

Programme ties in with job creation

The developed NARYSEC programme will complement the department’s job creation model, which targets and ensures at least one person per household in the rural areas where the CRDP is being piloted, is employed and that such employment is linked to skills development, explained Nkwinti.

The department has initiated these job creation and skills development programmes in line with its rural development mandate to create vibrant, equitable and sustainable rural communities throughout South Africa and to contribute toward the key five priorities of the government.

Non-military focus

The minister explained that the government had to do something about the high unemployment levels in the country, and had to address the dire situation of an army of unemployed youths who have never worked and do not know what work is.

He asked what kind of moral authority or position the government could demand, if these young people become criminals and the government did nothing to address it.

“We send them to the defence force for two months of character-building as non-military personnel, and they will become our agents of change. Then we have moral authority,” Nkwinti added.

According to Eddie Mohoebi, spokesperson for the department, each recruit must have attained at least a grade 10 level of educational, be aged between 18 and 35, and will be trained for two years while receiving a monthly salary of R1 320 plus food, lodging and transport costs.

Three phases

The CRDP will undertake rural development in three phases.

The first phase – which is short-term in character – focuses on breaking the back of hunger at household level and is intended to meet basic human needs.

Job creation is central to this phase, as such the CRDP commits itself to ensuring at least one person per rural household is employed for a minimum period of two years.

In either project, the community has identified socio-economic local development or in industries that emerge as a result of CRDP intervention.

Entrants to these two-year job opportunities sign contracts that cover training and development, commitment to a minimum of two years of unbroken engagement, 50% direct contribution of earnings to respective household and an exit strategy to ensure sustainability beyond the contract.

The second phase – with its horizon on the medium term – is the entrepreneurial development stage, characterised by relatively larger scale infrastructure development as a driver. As such, it focuses on rural livelihoods and food security and is anchored on, among others, fencing, bifocal projects, integrated cropping and livestock with complete value-add.

The catalyst for this phase includes entrepreneurial training, development and formation; integration of indigenous knowledge systems with appropriate modern technology; co-operative system production; economic and financial services sectors development.

The third phase – the medium to long term – is essentially the stage of the emergence of industrial and financial sectors, driven by small, micro and medium enterprises and village markets.

Some of the key catalysts for this phase include the leveraging of the supply side (production discipline in feeder sectors), processing plants, and village markets anchored by information and communication technology infrastructure and skills, consumer co-operatives, credit finance facilities, public and social service hubs in villages around emergent industrial and financial sectors.

Significant progress

The CRDP is focused on enabling rural people to take control of their destiny, with the support from the government, and thereby dealing effectively with rural poverty through optimal use and management of natural resources, said Nkwinti.

This will be achieved through a co-ordinated and integrated broad-based agrarian transformation, as well as the strategic investment in economic and social infrastructure that will benefit the entire rural communities.

The programme will be successful when it becomes apparent that “sustainable and vibrant rural communities” are succeeding throughout South Africa.

“Significant progress has already been made in Muyexe in the district of Giyani: Social profiling has been completed, schools renovated, sanitation blocks completed at schools, 318 houses already completed, nine boreholes tested and flowing and being linked to communal water points, 140 households fenced and co-ops established. Council of stakeholders is operational, a pump and irrigation system has been installed, youth have been trained and employed to complete social profiling,” said Nkwinti.

“It is worth mentioning that there is no house built in the townships that matches the houses that are being built in Muyexe.

“In all, 60% of the houses have electricity and Eskom is still upgrading transformers to accommodate the remaining 40%.

“Furthermore, the Muyexe women (Macela Co-operative) have harvested their crops as a result of the facilitation by the department,” he added.

“Our vision is to see vibrant, equitable and sustainable rural communities. The CRDP is the vehicle that will take us there. The pilots in Giyani (Limpopo) will enable us to come up with an evidence-based, integrated approach to the CRDP.”

In Mokgalwaneng, Disake and Matlametlong in the North West, similar projects have been completed and include vegetable production, a clinic renovated and operational 24 hours, firebreaks completed on 160km. In all, 7km of fencing were completed, the school renovated and paving completed.

New ambulances were purchased, 100 bicycles delivered for school children as well as a bus, and livestock handling facilities completed on two farms. Agricultural starter packs to 30 households were delivered.

In Msinga and Vryheid in KwaZulu-Natal, various fencing projects, housing ventures, a crèche, and water and irrigation projects have been completed.

In Mkhondo in Mpumalanga, a similar scenario prevails with fencing, housing and household gardens. An integrated service centre has been established.

In the Free State site, roads have been paved, houses and schools built, and cropping fields established.

In the Western Cape, household profiling has been completed, a clinic garden established, and equipment installed last year for the Fifa Soccer World Cup viewing is utilised for distance learning.

In the Eastern Cape, various household gardens have been established, an agri-park established and roads graded.

In the Northern Cape, houses have been built, an e-rap centre established, roads graded, and clinic and community halls upgraded.

Destructive effect of HIV/Aids on rural communities

Asked about the effects of HIV/Aids on the rural population, Nkwinti said it was felt on two key farm production parameters.

Firstly, household labour quality and quantity were reduced, initially in terms of productivity when the HIV-infected person was ill, and later the supply of household labour falls with the death of that person.

The second factor of household agricultural production that HIV/Aids will affect, is the availability of disposable cash income.

During episodes of illness, household financial resources may be diverted to pay for medical treatment and eventually to meet funeral costs.

Such resources may otherwise be used to purchase agricultural inputs such as occasional extra labour or other complementary inputs (for example, new seeds or plants, fertiliser and pesticides).

Family assets (for example, livestock) may be sold off. If a household becomes unable either to supply such labour internally or hire temporary workers, the composition of crops may be gradually altered, shifting from cash to subsistence crops in some cases.

Land reform plans

Nkwnti said the government distributed approximately 7.4 million hectares of land to previously disadvantaged South Africans since the inception of land reform in 1994.

The Department of Land Reform and Rural Development puts more emphasis on sustainable land reform rather than on hectorage delivery. As such, it focuses on improving the productivity of the agricultural land that has been redistributed since 1994, and this will be done through recapitalisation and development programmes initiated in 2010.

This programme will seek to assist landowners with efficient utilisation of irrigation, increased production potential, mentoring of emerging projects and share equity schemes.

“However, it should be noted that our new approach toward land reform (which includes availing land to emerging farmers) is not only about chasing hectares, but is underpinned by three key principles for sustainable land reform. That is the de-racialisation of the rural economy for shared and sustained growth; democratic and equitable land allocation and use across gender, race and class; and strict production discipline for guaranteed national security,” explained Nkwinti.

Fanie Heyns