The African Farmers Association of South Africa (Afasa) has lambasted “government bureaucrats” for allegedly wasting millions on wrong beneficiaries of land reform at the expense of those capable of working the land.
Afasa’s chairperson in Limpopo, Tshwarelo Masutha, was responding to a Special Tribunal ruling that found that a former minister had unlawfully given instructions for officials to conclude a lease agreement with a company whose majority owner did not qualify as a Progressive Land Acquisition Strategy beneficiary.
The Special Tribunal found that Maite Nkoana-Mashabane instructed her department’s officials to sign an agreement allowing Cultiver Investments to lease Mike’s Chicken farm at Doornbult near Polokwane in 2019. This was after Cultiver acquired 90% of the shareholding into Mike’s Chicken in 2013, the same year the project was given a R137-million
injection to purchase nine immovable properties involving chicken hatchery farms.
“We are saddened to learn that another project has collapsed due to land reform deals that don’t pass the test.
“The reality is that we have two types of farmers: those who work in the office and those who work on the ground. Unfortunately, the money that is always allocated to farmers in this country only reaches 1% of farmers working on the ground, while the rest goes to those working in the office,” said Masutha.
He said deserving beneficiaries of agricultural funding were overlooked in favour of the relatives of heads of department and directors within the sector.
“Their relatives own hundreds of companies that are always getting funding. If you do an assessment of the funds released versus the funds used to empower farmers on the ground you’d be shocked. I’m sure the government is not even willing to justifiably demonstrate where each cent allocated went.
“Instead, millions are spent on workshops and summits, conferences and hotel accommodation. I urge our politicians to do research on how white farmers celebrate Farmers Day. When you get there you are on a farm and an open field where you have all the produce on display. That is celebrating farming. Sadly, a majority of black farmers observe the day in a stuffy town hall,” he said.
Masutha said it was unfair for politicians who had no clue about farming to have unfettered powers to decide the future of hard-working farmers.
“You cannot stand in Cape Town and say a fire in Musina is very hot. You need to be there next to the Musina fire to understand how hot it is.”
According to the Special Tribunal, Mike’s Chicken failed because of dodgy processes that were followed to conclude a lease agreement in 2019.Cultiver, which reportedly employed 175 people on the farm, is listed as under deregistration after going into a business rescue process due to lack of funding.
According to the SIU, the lease was made possible following “political intervention” by Nkoana-Mashabane.
The Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform’s media liaison officer, Reggie Ngcobo, said they had seen the judgment but needed time to study it.
Attempts to obtain comment from Nkoana-Mashabane and Cultiver Investments’ director Muziwempi Twala were unsuccessful.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
