Didiza puts stop to evictions of thriving farmers
• Instruction comes after Business Day highlighted plight of black farmers moved from farms to make way for novice occupants
Agriculture, land reform & rural development minister Thoko Didiza has instructed her department to stop farm evictions, after an outcry that rogue officials were evicting successful black farmers from their farming operations. Three weeks ago Business Day highlighted the plight of farmers who were evicted from farming enterprises and made to move around different farms, with no security of tenure. This resulted in one farmer losing out on a lucrative contract to supply a Western Cape butchery with slaughter pigs.
Agriculture, land reform and rural development minister Thoko Didiza has instructed her department to stop farm evictions, after an outcry that rogue officials were evicting successful black farmers from their farming operations.
Three weeks ago Business Day highlighted the plight of farmers who were evicted from farming enterprises and made to move around different farms, with no security of tenure. This resulted in one farmer losing out on a lucrative contract to supply a Western Cape butchery with slaughter pigs.
This week Didiza held a meeting with farmers, agricultural organisations and politicians in Mpumalanga to tackle issues pertaining to farm lease agreements, alleged noncompliance with lease agreements, tensions between farmers and labour tenants, and alleged corruption of departmental officials.
The meeting agreed, among other things, that all eviction letters served on farmers be “withdrawn”, and that a team from the national department’s offices would be based in Mpumalanga for two weeks to assist all farmers whose leases had not been finalised.
On Tuesday, Didiza’s spokesperson, Reggie Ngcobo, told Business Day that the “minister’s instructions refer to all provinces”.
Agriculture is one of the key sectors of the economy as it contributes about 3% to GDP and is responsible for nearly 1-million jobs.
DA MP and agriculture, land reform and rural development
spokesperson Annette Steyn, who has been highlighting the eviction of farmers in the National Assembly, said: “This is a very welcome development.
It’s all the media pressure that’s made [the minister] go on the ground to see what’s actually happening.”
Steyn said some of the farmers had been losing out on funding and contracts because they could not prove they had valid lease agreements.
Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz) chief economist Wandile Sihlobo said any negative interventions being carried out on successful black farms was always worrying. It was therefore a welcome development to see Didiza providing clarity on what was happening at ground level.
“Ideally, land reform should contribute towards growing the agricultural pie, with more people being involved and successful — they should be supported instead of being victimised, as the news reports suggest,” Sihlobo said.
He hopes, he said, there will be a “follow-through in all the processes that the minister has outlined”.
Christo van der Rheede, executive director of commercial agricultural organisation AgriSA, said: “We welcome the announcement by the minister that farmers on state land won’t be removed from those farms to make space for people who know very little about farming.”
He called on the department to develop a proper database on those who should be farming on state land, and address issues pertaining to lease agreements, land ownership, financial support and agricultural extension services.
“Due to media pressure it was very clear that there were corrupt officials trying to either manipulate the allocation of farms in their favour or for their families or friends,” Van der Rheede said.
“That’s the big problem with land reform in SA. We are not making headway in dealing with corruption and the administrative fraud that goes with that. It needs to be ironed out.”
The farmers stressed that the eviction orders went against the government’s plans to release 700,000ha of state land on 30-year leaseholds to black farmers.
The 700,000ha are part of land acquired by the former SA government for the consolidation of the homelands which, ever since the elections of 1994, remained in the hands of the central government.
The evictions, however, continued unabated despite Didiza having assured occupants of state-owned farms earmarked for land reform that it was not the government’s intention to evict them but to assist them by giving them occupation rights.