The article by Dewald van Rensburg – titled Land audit’s “bizarre” recommendations: “Definitive proposals” from land audit are difficult because the results are incredibly inconclusive – refers.

On February 4, Van Rensburg, with Hlengiwe Nhlabathi, did South Africa proud by presenting a commendable piece on the much-anticipated land audit.

But on February 11 2018, Van Rensburg undid all of that wonderful work by resorting to suppositions, lies, rumours and uninformed policy debates to take cheap shots at the land audit and policies and programmes department. He invented a falsehood that Cabinet rejected the land audit in June 2017.

Van Rensburg advances arguments to discredit departmental policies that are informed by the land audit.

He argues that the land audit was rejected by Cabinet in June and that the November 2017 recommendations are the same as those rejected by Cabinet in June 2017.

His evidence to support his arguments is to invent lies about events; bring expert props for his narrative; engage in name-calling if facts fail his case; and invent nonexistent proposals to conduct a misguided policy debate with the land audit.

The purpose of the land audit was clear.

Cabinet wanted information on private landownership by race, nationality and gender. The department duly complied with that directive. It presented the land audit in May 3 2017. That land audit, however, was applicable to only 31% of private land because race, gender and nationality could not be determined on the remaining 69% of the private land, which is owned by companies, trusts, community-based organisations and co-ownerships.

In response, Cabinet issued a second directive to the department: first, to refine the land audit further; and, second, to produce definite proposals that are informed by this refined land audit report.

Not less than 20 weeks were spent processing the land audit report and the Cabinet proposals based on it.

Accordingly, Cabinet directed the department to prepare a separate and a detailed submission for consideration on the three proposals after seeing them for the first time in November 2017.

Mxotwa is director of media liaison at the ministry of rural development and land reform

City Press stands by its story. The department told City Press that the June version of the land audit had the same three recommendations as the November one which was reported on. The minister of rural development told Parliament twice last year that Cabinet had “returned” the earlier land audit to his department.

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