Black farmers fall in the furrows
of his tunnels produced 19 boxes of cucumber, far more than the average yield. But he warns that farmers have to contend with high overheads, such as the cost of diesel, wages, water, fertiliser, electricity and packaging.
Mathebula says Parliament should go ahead with the amendment of section 25 of the Constitution to allow the state to nationalise the land. He argues that this would create fairness because nobody’s land would be worth more than any other’s.
“If we all don’t own the land the systems will change slightly,” said Mathebula, pointing out that banks don’t want to do business with individuals like himself who are landreform beneficiaries.
Eastern Cape farmer Aggrey Mahanjana, who is the managing director of the National Emergent Red Meat Producers Organisation (Nerpo), which represents 2.8-million livestock farmers, says black farmers who failed did so because they did not get support after they were given land and not because they did not have skills or the ability to farm successfully.
He says that Nerpo has been trying to convince government to ensure that it offered post-settlement support to black farmers.
“Government takes too long to respond,” says Mahanjana.
Nerpo supported the expropriation of land without compensation but only in certain situations, such as where landowners were unable to produce proof of ownership of farms in the former homelands, which were transferred to white farmers during the political transition of the early 1990s.
Mahlati says that Afasa had conducted hearings among its members in 2016 and 2017, establishing that land and water shortages were the biggest problems they faced.
The government’s land restitution and reform programmes are plagued by corruption and long delays in providing post-settlement support, she says.
In its submission to the parliamentary review committee on proposed changes to section 25, Nerpo proposed that the state implement a 50/50 financing blended model for commercial agricultural purposes when compensating for expropriated land, in which the state pays 50% of the compensation value and the recipient pays the balance with loans or their own finances.
It also proposed that land reform beneficiaries be given two options for commercial agricultural land; either to acquire land through the 50/50 scheme or be given a long-term lease of between 30 and 99 years.
Mathebula hopes to save enough to invest in machinery that would modernise his farm. He also wants to upgrade his antiquated crop spraying equipment. He says that if he owned the land he farms he would have received a loan to do this.
Some of the difficulties faced by farmers like Mathebula and Hlangwana may become history if government delivers on the promises made by Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Maite Nkoana-Mashabane in her budget speech earlier this year.
She said the department planned to acquire 98100 hectares with the proactive land acquisition strategy and would pilot 18 farms to support the accelerated land development and redistribution initiative. — Mukurukuru Media