Workers on Bathurst farm to benefit from land policy
THE Birbury farm workers in the Bathurst pineapple belt, between Grahamstown and Port Alfred, are on the cusp of having their poverty-stricken lives changed for the better now that the Department of Rural Development has rolled out its co-ownership land redistribution policy.
The 50/50 land redistribution policy is one of a raft of land reform and rural development measures minister Gugile Nkwinti has instituted, since he took over the new Department of Rural Development and Land Reform in 2009, to address the skewed land ownership patterns in the country and to turn around the underdeveloped rural enclaves, so to drive away the frontiers of poverty.
The co-ownership policy makes provision for farm workers to own half of the farm together with the farm owner, and to share in the profits of the farming business.
This policy was severely maligned by land owners when the department introduced it in 2014.
Even black farm workers and black farm owners were sceptical about this government land reform initiative. Nobody gave it a chance of success.
The 50/50 land redistribution and the one hectare one household policies have proved very successful and popular among the land-hungry previously dispossessed individuals.
However, there are still those who are hell-bent on maintaining the status quo.
This lobby group has incessantly criticised the government land reform initiatives to delegitimise the struggle of the indigenous people for land.
Several 50/50 farm schemes in various provinces across the country have proved successful and also have been welcomed by the previous farm owners.
The land reform doomsday-sayers had all along maintained that the 50/50 policy had further enriched the farm owners at the expense of workers.
They also believed that it had made the socio-economic conditions of the farm workers worse than before it was introduced.
This, of course, is further from the truth.
Farm workers now stand to share in the profits and dividends every time the farming businesses generates profits.
They, too, are now land owners – something that did not exist before.
The Birbury farm project in Bathurst is a classic example of resounding success where this new land redistribution policy has proved sceptics wrong.
The 632ha farm is located in Ndlambe Local Municipality of the Sarah Baartman District Municipality, which is hard-hit by unemployment and poverty. The farm was identified by Nkwinti in 2015 for the implementation of the 50/50 policy to turn around the lives of poverty-stricken farm workers.
The farm was acquired for R12.8-million and was transferred to the state in February last year.
The farm grows pineapples for export markets and undertakes livestock farming.
The pineapples are grown on 208ha of the farm while the remaining portion is earmarked for grazing of the farm workers’ livestock.
There are 29 farm workers, some of whom are members of the board of directors.
Farm manager Bruce Thompson is excited about the future prospects of the Birbury farm and its workers.
He said although the farm at present did not generate profit, he was optimistic that in about five years’ time the beneficiaries, the farm workers, would be getting dividends, on top of their monthly salaries.
He called on the Department of Rural Development to help the farm workers to move out of poverty.
“My biggest aim is to prove that black people can do farming with the right guidance and adequate support from the government,” Thompson said.
The farm workers owned 50% of the farming business, the Humansdorp Co-op owned 40% and board chairman George Ngesi owned 10%.
Thompson said the farm had no equipment when he took up his position as a manager in 2015.
The farming business was subsequently helped by a R5.3-million grant from the National Empowerment Fund.
That enabled the Birbury farm to purchase five tractors for operations.
The Humansdorp Co-op is helping the Birbury farm project with infrastructure funding and inputs.
It also provides or sources expert management services and ensures good corporate governance. The Humansdorp Co-op also has a responsibility to facilitate access to markets.
The Birbury 50/50 farm at present produces, every 18 months, a turnover of 70 tons of pineapples which it markets through Summerpride Company in East London.
The beneficiaries worked on Birbury farm under the previous owner.
The farm workers, now co-owners of the farm, said the 50/50 policy introduced on the farm had improved their socio-economic conditions.
The farm workers were yearning for the era when they would be sharing in the business dividends, which is expected in five years’ time.
The 50/50 land redistribution policy will go a long way in addressing the present land hunger in the country.
This policy also ushers in an orderly and peaceful way of effecting land reform in the country without disrupting land markets and agriculture production.