A former chair of the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature has raised concern that the government continues to pour millions of rands into a tea project despite it failing to yield a return on investment for almost two decades.
Launched with much fanfare in 2005, the Ntingwe Tea Estate, an entity under the provincial Department of Agriculture was dubbed a game changer and a profitable venture to create jobs in the area. It was allocated a budget of R4,9 million for the current financial year.
Maggie Govender, the former KZN chairperson of Scopa raised her grave concerns about the project.
“Further investments into the current state of the tea estate will be tantamount to throwing money away,” Govender noted during a recent portfolio committee meeting.
She also explained what had exacerbated the estate’s woes was that there were no financial statements to explain how allocated funds were being spent.
“A comprehensive report demonstrating how additional funding would lead to different outcomes was needed before any money can be committed,” she said.
The Auditor-General also took issue with the management of Ntingwe Tea Estate, which had no elected board and had failed to have any turnaround strategy. The tea produced on the estate, located about 50km away from the rural town of Nkandla in northern KZN, was once a highly sought-after product. At some stage, it was ranked among the top five teas in the world by Taylors of Harrogate.
During its peak, the tea estate produced high-quality tea, which was sold in bulk in the London tea market.
Mismanagement, lack of oversight and poor project implementation have been cited as the main reasons behind the project being a shadow of its former self and shedding jobs.
Graham Chennells, a campaigner for the revitalisation of the project said politics got in the way.
“This estate employed more than 500 people on a permanent basis and it has been closed down since 2017. Someone needs to get this project back on its feet again,” he said.
Chennells also recalled that tourists visiting Nkandla and surrounding villages would buy the teas produced in the fields.
“Some would test them for their renowned antioxidant properties and their superior taste,” he said.
The famous Nkandla green and black tea was sold to international markets via Taylors of Harrogate. It was also sold to tea packers, who in turn, blended tea from Ntingwe Tea Estate with other teas from other parts of the country and neighbouring countries, then packaged it into various brands for the market.
The Agriculture Development Agency, which holds a 38% stake in the tea estate, serves as the project manager for the project. The Department of Agriculture holds a 62% stake.
The department’s spokesperson Vusi Khumalo, said it was in KZN’s best interest to ensure sustainability of projects such as Ntingwe, which have socio-economic development impact, especially the creation of jobs.
Ntingwe Tea Estate was once a great employment opportunity for local and some distant residents. I think the problem there is poor Management.
Workers there are either occasionally retrenched and re-employed maybe for 6 months or so.
People are also employed on lengthy temporary basis…hence I say poor management prevails there.May KZN DoA visit the place and rule out the discrepancies.