Small-scale farmers deliver memorandum
A delegation of about 40 smallscale farmers and producers from Willowmore, Rietbron and GraaffReinet gathered at the Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality on Wednesday 13 December to deliver a memorandum outlining their challenges to Municipal Manager Dr Edward Rankwana and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Hans Hendricks. According to the farmers they already had several engagements with the COO, the first of which was in November 2021, but very few of the numerous undertakings made by him to address their challenges have materialised.
The farmers and producers then were invited on Wednesday to discuss their issues with Ntombizanele Koeberg, coordinator of the municipality’s Local Economic Development (LED) office, since the municipal manager and COO were not available to receive the memorandum.
Lease agreements
Lease agreements for the use of commonage was one of the most critical issues raised. The Baviaans Land and Agrarian Reform Forum (Blarf) is an umbrella body representing small-scale farmers and producers in Willowmore and surrounding areas. A lease agreement stipulating that 200ha of land, or a portion thereof, will be made available to them for farming activities for a period of nine years and 11 months was signed on 27 August 2020, but according to the complainants, to date the land has not been made available. The Rietbron farmers and producers and most of the members of the Willowmore Cooperative Forum have not been able to secure any lease agreements. The complainants said not having proper lease agreements in place is hampering their progress as they are unable to obtain stakeholder support for developing the land and advancing their farming endeavours.
Concerns about commonage
They maintain that access to land has always been one of the greatest challenges experienced by small-scale farmers and producers in Willowmore and surrounds. For this reason, they find it extremely concerning that Council wants to put commonage out on tender without having consulted with them first. According to them, several farms have already been sold off by the municipality in the past and established farmers have also been utilising farms belonging to the municipality for decades. They believe that these farms should have been reserved for upcoming farmers and that it will therefore be absurd to allow more commonage to go out on tender while they remain landless.
They are also disturbed by the fact that they missed the opportunity to engage with the municipality’s draft commonage by-law, since they were never informed that it was open for commenting. According to them there are certain provisions of the bylaw that they do not understand and need the municipality to explain to them. There are also some provisions that they are not in agreement with and need to object to. Based on the statement that there has not been any proper communication in this regard, they demand that the period for commenting and objecting on the commonage by-law be reopened to allow them the opportunity to engage and give input.
Upgrading of commonage water infrastructure
At present the farmers and producers who are members of Blarf as well as members of the recently established Cooperative Forum in Willowmore are utilising commonage that has been temporarily made available to them. They are unable to develop this land since they do not have any lease agreement for its use. Considering that they have been experiencing serious challenges relating to water, the COO undertook to invest in the upgrading of the water infrastructure on the land but, they say, to date this has not happened.