Farm equity schemes successful in W Cape

THE DA believes the judicious validation or selection of beneficiaries, coupled with support in the form of partnerships with commodity groups for training, mentoring and access to markets, should be proactively promoted in all provinces to bring justice to previously dispossessed people if we are serious and fully committed to redressing the injustices of the past where agricultural land is concerned.

We must not allow the ANC to deflect and divert our attention from their own failures to provide poor black South Africans with land. Land expropriation without compensation is nothing but an electioneering gimmick for the ruling party.

Nepotism and corruption have plagued the current land reform process where the ANC elite have directly benefited. This is epitomised by the Vrede Dairy Farming project corruption saga where the poor were sidelined for the benefit of the Guptas allegedly facilitated by Mosebenzi Zwane and Ace Magashule.

This is precisely the reason why the ANC politicians are in no hurry to put mechanisms in place for the return of the land from which our people were brutally and forcefully removed. The question must then be asked: why is ANC failing to distribute land to the people?

The ANC’S policy seeks to make black, emerging farmers tenants of the state and expropriation without compensation is a “get out of jail free” card to escape accountability for their failure to deliver land to its rightful owners in a way that is consistent with the principles of our constitution.

Expropriation without compensation would severely undermine the national economy, only hurting poor black people even further.

Wherever it has been practised, it has led to intensified elite capture, so that party bosses and well-connected cronies benefit from the expropriation programme, and the rest of the economy suffers greatly.

The Da-run Western Cape far exceeds the rest of the country in implementing land reform.

One of the ways in which the DA has successfully transferred land to black people is through share equity schemes.

These schemes are arrangements in which farm workers, small-scale farmers or other disadvantaged people buy shares in a commercial farm or an agricultural processing company through government grants and become co-owners with the original owners.

This model has been successfully implemented in about 90 farms in the Western Cape.

One such farm is Bosman Adama Family Wines in Wellington. This farm is a success story that should be highlighted as it demonstrates what can be achieved through this model.

The farm’s work force has increased from 260 to 420 people, 300 of whom are permanently employed. Since the partnership, 122 staff houses have been provided and a housing project in Wellington is being developed for their retired and younger workers.

The DA believes it is possible to achieve the aims of land reform and to do so in a way that truly empowers black people and strengthens the economy.

Redressing the painful legacy of the past does not require that we unstitch the constitution and stoke the flames of hatred and division. We do not trade in the currency of quick fixes.

Redress

Successfully redressing the legacy of land dispossession will require hard work, real commitment to rule out corruption, commitment to provide adequate budget and the political will to implement policy.

Professor Ruth Hall believes that if done well, it can lead to many farm workers not only owning a stake in a business, but having access to middle management positions.

This can increase vocational and educational opportunities for their children. Share equity schemes is a means to give farmworkers a financial stake and eventual ownership of land and assets.

The answer to the land question is removing the four impediments to effective land reform and replacing them with political will, clean governments and commitment to growing the economy, promoting private property rights that truly empower people.

A Share Equity Scheme, as we have been shown by the Bosman family, is a model that’s truly a meaningful way to create successful emerging black farmers who have been deprived of property rights for centuries.

THANDEKA MBABAMA, MP, DA Shadow Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform