Government sources said a mob, armed with knives and machetes, had
seized control of Forana farm in the rich farming area of Mpumalanga
province over the Easter weekend after threatening and driving off
local managers and staff employed by the new owners, a black-run
farming cooperative.
The 3200 hectare farm is part of Tenbosch estate, a Rand 10 billion
(740 million) land-restitution project. It is made up of several farms
handed back to four local communities who progressively lost their
historic land under apartheid legislation since 1923.
Invaders, mirroring complaints in rural communities across the country,
are angry over the few benefits they have seen from the much-heralded
land transfer although the new owners made clear it would take several
years to turn around land which although originally seized from locals,
has been abandoned and neglected for years.
Agribusiness Umlimi, which controls the joint-venture farm management
company Makhombo for the Lugedlane community condemned the action as
irresponsible and said it compromised farming operations and
jeopardised the ultimate flow of benefits to the community.
Fifteen years after the end of apartheid, land reform remains one of
the country's most sensitive issues. Government attempts to redress an
imbalance which saw whites holding some 83 percent of all land, have
largely failed, angering all sides.
Critics say the programme has simply contributed to destroying viable
commercial farming sector by drastically reducing the amount of land
available for commercial agriculture without bringing any benefit to
rural communities.
I would say that 95 percent of land transferred under the scheme so
far has simply resulted in once productive farms being turned over to
subsistence farming, Chris van Zyl, deputy general manager of the
Transvaal Agricultural Union told The Times.
He said the situation had not been helped because the new owners were
frequently denied title deeds without which they found it difficult to
raise the necessary investment. In addition, white farmers who are keen
to sell sometimes have to wait more than two years to receive promised
funds from the government. In the meantime they make no investment on
the land.
The Land Bank which organises such purchases under the current willing
buyer, willing seller scheme is bankrupt after successive corruption
scandals.
All this has led to a decrease in production and a crisis of food
security, Mr van Zyl added. You can't just take land away from one
group and hand it to others and expect it to stay productive. The issue
is far more complex. Unfortunately it is a very sensitive issue and
needs to be handled with care but politicians take advantage of that
and whip up expectations which cannot be met.
Emotions are currently
running high in South Africa as the country is in the midst of the most
closely contested election campaign since democracy in 1994. Opposition
parties are highlighting the failure of the ANC to deliver on previous
pledges to end poverty and improve life for the black majority – some
85 percent of the population.
Land, land reform and agricultural production are some of the areas
where the current government has failed most dramatically to the extent
it recently warned black farmers they risked losing the land again
under a new use it or lose it policy.
Farm invasions stoke fears that South Africa could go the same way as
Zimbabwe where a fast track programme, aimed at meeting local
people's frustrations, saw white farmers losing farms violently without
compensation with disastrous consequences for the broader economy.
Attorney Richard Spoor, who acted for a group of concerned members of
the Tenbosch beneficiary community, told the Business Day newspaper the
Tenbosch project was a shambles because certain of the new trustees had
abused the trust of the community.
Through Makhombo, Umlimi has disbursed hundreds of thousands of pounds
to the Lugedlane community in the past three years, but none of the
income was passed on to the community, according to the group behind
the invasion.
The Times (UK)
Post published in: Uncategorized