Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister, Thoko Didiza, has presented the research findings on the evaluation of the Land Restitution Programme.

The research, which commenced in 2018, followed government’s decision to evaluate the socio-economic impact of the restitution programme. The research was conducted by government, in partnership with the Southern African Labour and Development Research Unit at the University of Cape Town, and the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation.

According to the study, which included 2 664 households and 3 378 people who were sampled and interviewed, the effects of land dispossession not only affected the economic prosperity of the dispossessed, but also disintegrated families who were forcefully removed.

‘Land dispossession not only constrained the economic prosperity of black people but also broke families, alienated communities, and entrenched a deep-rooted trauma and impoverishment for generations to come,’ Didiza said on Monday.

Didiza said the
breaking of families led to the erosion of identity, causing a breakdown of social cohesion.

‘It springboards families and individuals into poverty traps. More devastatingly, it compromises the psychological well-being and hope of dispossessed persons as well as their respective descendants.

‘Essentially, land dispossession indirectly diminishes the cognitive capacities and decision-making abilities of the dispossessed over the long-term,’ Didiza said.

Findings

The Minister said the Land Restitution Programme was meant to bring land justice and break the cycle of poverty amongst the dispossessed. The research was thus designed to measure the impact of restitution on the beneficiaries’ overall well-being.

‘The aspects of well-being considered are economic augmentation, psychological enhancements, cognitive development, and social upliftment,’ Didiza said.

In terms of economic well-being, the study revealed that the economic power of restitution beneficiaries increased by 16%, measured in per capita per m
onth, relative to the control sample.

‘In some cases, this is as high as 36% of those large land claims – the outliers in the data,’ the study found.

Regarding psychological well-being, the study showed that the settlement of the restitution claims significantly reduced the risk of depression by up to 0.15 standard deviation score.

This implies that the level of trauma diminished by 15% once the restitution claim was settled.

On cognitive capacity, the study showed that performance on working memory tasks increased by a range of 0.7 to 0.75 standard deviation for the beneficiaries.

‘This indicates that land restitution can reverse the mental damage caused by the apartheid regime on people and families, the democratic dividend that has been bestowed on people since 1994,’ the study noted.

On social well-being, the study results showed that the ability to perform cultural activities and spiritually connect with ancestors is one of the key benefits of the restitution programme.

Didiza welcomed the finding
s of the study, noting that it is an important milestone not only in South Africa’s long road towards restorative justice but also in the global challenge of effecting reparations to the dispossessed.

Didiza said the insights gleaned from the evaluation will help the department to upscale its efforts in implementing land restitution, and helped the department to understand the underlying factors of challenges faced by the land restitution projects or beneficiaries.

‘One of the areas highlighted is the deep-rooted trauma of land dispossession victims and the subsequent erratic behaviour of some beneficiaries. The study shows that healing from trauma will require a new dialogue and conceived avenues for victims of forced removals to air their grievances,’ Didiza said.

Source: South African Government News Agency