The Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE) notes with concern the silence on land reform and rural development in the 2025 Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), tabled on 12 November. While the budget speech emphasises fiscal discipline and household relief, it fails to confront the structural drivers of hunger and poverty, particularly in rural and peri-urban communities. In fact, as highlighted by AIDC (Alternative Information and Development Centre), “this budget is neo-liberalism on steroids”.

South Africa has serious systemic challenges that need to be addressed as a matter of urgency. For instance, in May of this year, the Health Minister reported that 155 children under the age of five died from malnutrition in public health facilities in South Africa between January and May 2025. Such child fatalities indicate household food insecurity, which can be mitigated by improving access to productive land for families. Research shows that increased land access can enhance livelihoods for low-income households, suggesting that policy measures aimed at promoting household food security and land availability could help address these challenges. However, the Treasury’s Budget Speech reflects a disconnect between hunger alleviation and land reform, overlooking the well-documented role of land access in strengthening household food security.

In the Budget Vote in July 2025, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) was allocated R9.820 billion, with R6.168 billion earmarked for Land and Tenure Reform and Restitution to address these issues. This allocation included R559 million to acquire and allocate 44,000 hectares of land and a commitment to process long-outstanding labour tenant applications. These allocations signalled a recognition of the constitutional mandate to ensure equitable access to land and protect tenure security.

Four months later, however, the MTBPS offers no update on delivery, no new investment, and no urgency. There is no mention of progress on land acquisition, no transparency on spending, and no plan to address the ongoing crisis of illegal evictions. This silence is not neutral; it is a retreat from rural justice.

TCOE calls on Treasury and DALRRD to:

• Provide a progress report on the 44,000 hectares promised.
• Release updated figures on labour tenant awards and tenure security enforcement, including plans to deal with farmworker evictions.
• Clarify whether the R6.168 billion allocated in July has been spent, underspent, or rolled over.
• Commit to structural investment in food sovereignty, agroecology, and rural livelihoods.

The above issues are disappointing and highlight serious structural issues the country has to deal with. As a country plagued by deep-seated inequalities, whose majority has pinned some hope that the democratic government would commit to ideals of building an equal society, it is puzzling to note that over the years, our government has adopted policies that seek to maintain the status quo. The continued budget cuts reflect the neoliberal stance of our government, which is committed to serving the capitalist interests at the expense of many citizens drowning in poverty, hunger and malnutrition, particularly rural and farm dweller communities facing daily evictions and communal land rights holders experiencing tenure insecurities.

Budgets are not just numbers; they are moral documents. They reflect what the government values, and who it chooses to protect. If land reform is a constitutional priority, it must be a budgetary one. Without transparency, tracking, or delivery updates, these commitments remain rhetorical.

The TCOE will continue to monitor budget follow-through and mobilise for a just, transparent, and accountable public finance system, one that centres land, food, and the right to live free from poverty. We call for a budget that not only allocates, but delivers.

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The Trust for Community Outreach and Education are a national organisation that supports a variety of local movements, associations, forums, and labour organisations in rural and peri-urban areas.