Farmers protest slow land reform

BLACK farmers who have embarked on a #LandMustFall struggle campaign marched to the Union Buildings yesterday to hand over a memorandum expressing their dissatisfaction with the slow pace of land reform.

About 300 members of the African Farmers Association of South Africa took part.

Association secretary-general Aggrey Mahanjana said most black farmers did not own the land they worked on and could therefore not access loans.

He said land reform was a ticking time-bomb and that 22 years into democracy, many black farmers still operated on the periphery of the mainstream agricultural industry with no real opportunities to grow viable businesses.

“We are calling for well co-ordinated, systematic and comprehensive support from all the relevant government departments and institutions to enable us to own land and agribusinesses that are profitable and sustainable,” Mahanjana said.

He said coupled with inadequate post-settlement farmer support, the slow pace of land reform could lead to a potential food crisis in the country.

The march was led by the association and the National Emergent Red Meat Producers Organisation. They had been jointly holding their annual congress since Monday.

At the congress in Centurion, they both agreed that Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Senzeni Zokwana should get his house in order.

The farmers sang struggle songs and held up placards while demanding to see Zokwana or President Jacob Zuma.

“If the president does not acknowledge our memorandum of demands within a day, we will cause mayhem at the Union Buildings and storm his offices with an even a bigger crowd,” Mahanjana said.

He said the smallholder farmers had in the past discussed pertinent issues affecting them. They also submitted proposals on how to expedite land reform and effective farmer support strategies to the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform as well as the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. But the farmers were not satisfied with the efforts made by both departments in addressing the problems, he said.

In their memorandum, they highlighted issues such as short-term government farm leases, lack of title deeds, high land prices, contracts, farm availability as well as slow processes of support programmes such as delays in the recapitalisation and development programme.

Presidency official Shemy Masheu said they would make sure the memorandum received the necessary attention and was acknowledged with a written reply.

“We are going to carefully study this memorandum and engage other government departments that will be directly affected,” he said.