Unco-operative over tractor
A FIGHT over a tractor has led to tension between crop farmers at Nanda dam near Hillcrest, outside Durban.
Two weeks ago, the co-operative unit under the Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, delivered four farm implements to the youth project Ilangami Elingacishi Co-operatives.
The implements had been procured through Ithala Bank as part of an initiative to uplift young farmers. The assistance came after Nomusa Dubencube, the MEC, visited the farm to commemorate International Day of Co-operatives, in July last year.
The project leaders, Philani Magwaza and Mlu Ngcobo, said to use the implements they would need a tractor.
Magwaza said a tractor, sponsored by the department four years ago, had not been accessible to the farmers. He accused the founder of Inqolobane Yobumbano Co-operative (an umbrella of four other co-operatives), Mbali Ishmael, of hoarding the tractor for her private crop.
Magwaza said the co-operative, which had won R50 000 in a gardening competition four years ago in Durban, had ceased to exist because of factions within a group of farmers. He said at a recent meeting with the farmers, a resolution was taken that implements be kept at a tool shed for easy access.
He also lashed out at Ishmael for not accounting for the money she has accumulated in renting out the tractor.
“We decided to excuse ourselves from their internal feud after she suddenly kept the tractor and other implements, making them her own.
“Others are having difficulties accessing a tractor and other farming tools when the season begins. They have to kneel before her to beg for the usage of implements.
“I find it odd that a single farmer should keep implements for herself when she is part of the co-operative,” said Magwaza.
He appealed to the youth development agency to buy them a tractor so that they could till the land.
However, Ishmael said Magwaza had no right to bad mouth her because he was not part of Inqolobane. She said it was agreed the tractor should be paid for, to keep its services running and to cover the cost of diesel. She said other farmers wanted to use the tractor free of charge.
She also accused farmers for not contributing towards maintaining the tractor and other implements.
She confirmed that she had kept other implements on her farm because others had not started farming.
“I am busy planting potatoes while others could not start ploughing crops because they have run out of funds to buy seeds. We cannot be forever dependent on government handouts. We need to sustain our crops so that assistance should be focused on the emerging farmers.”
Vusi Buthelezi, a member of Inqolobane, said he had not been denied access to a tractor when he needed to use it. But he said it was disingenuous for Ishmael to claim that he had no seeds to plough.
“We have got a nursery full of different plants – spinach, beetroot, cabbages, tomatoes and so on. She is misinformed when she says we cannot start with the crop because we are waiting for handouts. Our delay has been caused by Covid-19 restrictions we cannot move around to get compost and manure,” he said.