Cops roped in as no dividends in 3 yrs
VUVULANE - Every year, members of the Luzaluzile Farmers Association LTD watch as sugar cane is grown, cut and then sold yet they do not receive any dividends.
For the past three years, the members have not received any dividends.
Luzaluzile is one of the many farmers’ associations in the Lubombo Region and based in Vuvulane. It has about 218 members and according to the information gathered, it has a turnover of around E5 million.
Last Saturday, members of the association stormed the Tshaneni Police Station requesting to be assisted to hold a meeting there so that they could resolve internal matters.
The meeting was scheduled to be held on November 26, 2022, at around 10am.
The members stated that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss issues of impropriety.
They also said that they wanted the withdrawal of company funds immediately stopped until any of their differences were resolved.
Police officers from the Tshaneni Police Station were also part of the meeting after they were requested to be in attendance.
According to some of the members who spoke after the meeting, they last obtained their dividends in 2019.
They said this was frustrating because other associations that were similar to theirs were receiving dividends while they did not.
QueStioned
They questioned how the money was being spent since they were not receiving any revenue.
Considering that each member received about E1 500 each in 2019, this means that the 218 members were owed a total of about E981 000 for the past years including 2022.
This translates to almost E1 million.
Norman Gina, who is the Vice Chairperson of the association, also confirmed the concerns of the members.
He stated that there were concerns that had been brought through by the members including concerns over how the money was being used.
He also confirmed that they had not been able to pay dividends to the members and that the last time this was done was in 2019.
Gina also attended the meeting that was held last Saturday in Tshaneni.
Gina also said the members were not happy with the current committee.
He said they wanted to elect a new one because they were not pleased with the way things were being run by the current committee.
Further, Gina also confirmed that the members were not receiving any dividends since 2019.
He said his committee took office at the time.
He said at the time, the members were only given E1 500 each because only 36 hectares would be utilised. However, the number of hectares is now said to be about 77.
Confirmed
The association Chairperson Nhlanhla Mngometulu confirmed that the members were not getting any dividends.
However, he said some of the issues required more time to explain what was going on within the organisation.
He said he had not personally stopped the payment of dividends.
He said this had been stopped by a court order.
“Even if I wanted the members to receive their dividends, I am not able to do so because this was stopped by a court order,” said Mngometulu.
He further said as far as he was concerned, the court order was still effective.
Mngometulu also said some of the allegations made by some members were not true.
Mngometulu also accused the members of forcing the committee to hold a meeting at the police station.
He said under normal circumstances, their meetings were supposed to be held at Hlane.
However, he said some of the members refused and insisted that the meeting should be held at Tshaneni Police Station.
Mngometulu said this resulted in the members not attending the meeting yet they were the ones who had wanted to meet.
The chairperson also said some members were giving the impression that he was the sole signatory in the releasing of company funds.
He said this was not the case. Mngometulu said in such a company, one person cannot be the only one to sign for funds to be released.
“There is always more than one person,” he said adding that even in his case, he did not sign alone.