Most farms bought by state have failed

Fewer than 100 of more than 1 500 farms countrywide, bought between 2013 and 2018 by the state, are operational.

The national department of rural development and land reform (DRDLR) bought the farms at a cost of close to R5-billion for emerging black farmers.

However, the department has revealed that the farms have failed and it has since roped in the help of private specialists to revive hundreds of hectares lying in a state of forlorn abandonment.

DRDLR spokeswoman Linda Page acknowledged to the Daily Dispatch that hundreds of farms bought in the past five years were in a state of decay and have been abandoned.

She said in five years they had bought 1 511 farms worth R4.850-billion.

The figures per province were:

● Eastern Cape: R477.9m;

●Gauteng: R345.1m;

● Free State: more than R504m;

● KwaZulu-Natal: nearly R1bn;

● Limpopo: more than R537m;

● Mpumalanga: R501.8m;

● Northern Cape: more than R859m;

● North West: more than R462.6m; and

● Western Cape: R248.6m. Sources within the department revealed that fewer than 100 farms were operational, with the rest in a derelict state.

“We are spending more money buying more farms but the ones we have are in a state of decay. They are worse off than when we bought them,” said a senior official. However, after three weeks of back and forth communication, Page refused to state how many farms were actually operational.

She also refused to answer detailed questions sent to her office to clarify the mess.

“Since the 2013-2014 financial year, to the 2017-18 financial year, the DRDLR had acquired 1 511 farms through the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy and there are some of these farms which are deemed to be less than fully productive,” said Page.

“In many instances, this is despite some having received financial support through the Recapitalisation and Development Programme [RADP] and other support including mentoring, training and provision of farming equipment.

“In light of the challenges experienced regarding productivity, the department has appointed a service provider to conduct a full assessment of the farms for functionality on all farms acquired since the inception of the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy in 2006.

“This process is currently under way,” she revealed.

Page would not divulge the name of the service provider or what they would do to remedy the situation.

The National African Farms Union’s Eastern Cape president, Pumza Vitshima, said the emerging farmers had complained to the department and were promised assistance.

“That assistance never came. We understand that there was funding set aside to assist farmers and none of them received that support,” said Vitshima.

A Daily Dispatch investigation into four of the farms in Komga and Igoda in April found that they had gone from being working farms to being unproductive and derelict.

The farms were bought by the DRDLR to create jobs and eradicate poverty.

But those seen by Dispatch were mostly derelict.

Many had been working concerns, producing dairy products, crops (mostly maize) and beef for the market and for breeding.

The Dispatch team visited four farms worth R29.1m in the Buffalo City Metro area.

Three were dairy farms and the fourth a crop and livestock farm.

The farms all have ploughing fields and grazing camps that are overgrown by grass and infested with black wattle.

At the time we found:

● Hopewell dairy farm, bought for R8.8m, had 188 dairy cattle in 2016 and produced more than 1 000 litres of milk daily. It has 50 cattle today and produces less than 50 litres a day;

● Eversley farm in Komga, bought for R5m with more than 80 dairy cattle, is today standing empty with nothing but vandalised farm implements.

Most of the farmers we spoke to blamed the department for not having assisted them.

Page said the assessments of all the farms would include recommendations on the areas that required interventions, in order to optimise their production capacity.

She said where the department had intervened, there had been a significant improvement in production.

We are spending more money buying more farms but the current ones we have are in a state of decay ...