Reforming land reform

Earlier this month, Lulu Xingwana, the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, warned that land given to black farmers as part of redistribution would be forfeited if the farms were not producing food.

When I heard this, I was impressed.

A government minister was going to repossess the land that had been given to her compatriot subsistence farmers, because they were not were not producing food.

I supported her wholeheartedly.

The National African Farmers' Union (Nafu) immediately started bleating about how unfair the Minister's actions were. In fact the first vice-president of the Union, Mandla Buthelezi, claimed that Xingwana had not conducted a thorough audit of the unproductive farms and that she had not ascertained why the farms in black hands had stopped producing food.

Buthelezi then turned to the battle cry of any failed black enterprise: "Our members have not been given government support or training."

As soon as any enterprise fails, it's someone else's fault. Isn't it?

Several years ago, I did an interview with one of the water engineers working on the Flag Boshielo Dam near Marble Hall in Mpumalanga and he told me categorically that over 70% of the farms there were no longer producing food because the emerging farmers had simply stopped working the land.

Certainly there were some mitigating factors: A new pipeline to carry water to the lands was being built and the rainy season that year had been sparse. But that was not really the interesting point. You see, even then, the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs had repossessed farms and started managing them in conjunction with the community.

Within a year, those same farms were productive again – and the pipeline had still not been completed.

Quite clearly, the government was as determined then, as it is now, to make sure that farmlands redistributed to emerging farmers throughout the country must keep producing food.

There has been a huge hullaballoo over land redistribution in South African and government statistics indicate that by the time the land redistribution programme has been completed, more than R50bn will have spent, perhaps more.

Personally, I have no objections to these redistribution processes – as long as they are fair – but I'm delighted that Xingwana is taking a tough line with the indigent farmers who refuse to keep the land productive.

Her principle is simple: Use it or lose it.

That's exactly what happened outside Marble Hall, near the Flag Boshielo Dam in Mpumalanga.

Nafu represents about 15,000 emerging farmers around the country and Buthelezi concedes that his organisation is compiling a database of the farms that are currently unproductive. He says that the Union is at a "transformational stage" adding that he was "surprised" by the comments made by Xingwana.

If we scrutinise Buthelezi's claims as to why the farms are failing then the same old excuses crop up. A lack of "transformation", a "lack of training" or "no support from government". Interestingly, it's only the failed organisations that use these excuses: the good ones, the successful ones don't need to.

Failed organisations conveniently avoid the truth – that they themselves have performed badly, are inefficient and useless.

There are many instances in the tourism industry, in commerce, industry and mining, where transformation programmes have worked extremely well and you never hear people whining about how the government has failed to support them, or there has been a lack of training. You don't hear allegations that the transformation process is being held up by white racists trying to derail an empowerment programme.

And yet you hear this all the time from unsuccessful organisations who are desperately trying to blame someone else for their failures.

As Xingwana says, the government has a mandate to give land back to disadvantaged communities or to those dispossessed of their land. "But when you wake up one morning and find that the beneficiary has sold the land back to the original white farmer who owned it then you can see, quite clearly, that this is not land reform," says Xingwana.

The Minister says that there are even cases where people were allocated land and instead of farming it, they've turned it into a shebeen for the local community.

As she says, that's not land reform either.

Unlike the tragic case of Zimbabwe – where the farming infrastructure collapsed so badly that today the citizens of that country are starving – South Africa's government officials are taking positive action to ensure that redistributed farms remain productive.

Personally, I think this is excellent and commendable.

Of course what astonishes me most of all is that many of the farmers who received land – and who claim that they have not been trained – are the exact, same people who were keeping the original farms productive and profitable before the land was reallocated to them.

These people were working on the farms, being paid a wage, getting some minor benefits (such as housing) and were growing vegetables by the ton. Then the same land – with the same infrastructure – is given to them, and when they fail to produce crops these same farmers say they haven't been properly trained.

If they could farm the land successfully when they were employed to work, why can't they do so now, when all the profits will go into their own pockets? There is no logic underpinning such failures – there's just laziness, slovenliness and idleness.


I'm sure some readers will tell me that I'm insensitive, as some of the farmers really do need to be trained.

But what training do you need to turn a farm into a shebeen? What training do you need to sell the land you've been given, back to the original owners? What training do you need to take a productive tract of land and turn it into weeds and grasses?

Such excuses simply don't wash.

Readers' Comments
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Should put articles like this on the front page of all the nation's newspapers, and have it as headline news on TV programmes. It is so refreshing to see that Paddy is not afraid of telling it like it is. It's about time that lame excuses are shown to be the result of laziness and refusal to take responsibility for doing a decent day's work. - Margaret Hyson

I am also shocked by the mismanagement and also the absolute waste of money with regard the whole redistribution of land. Recently read an article on what happened in Zim. The moment the land redistribution was introduced, it had a huge impact on the whole financial system as banks could not provide funding for farmers as the land could not be regarded as security for overdrafts or loans for the farmers to run their farming businesses. These farmers will obviously run into the same problems, as they are not producing anything.

For me the shocking thing, these farmers, (e.g. Free state is one province I know what is happening or what happened) once the farm is bought, the department of agriculture put up new fences, new systems to provide water for animals are built, they are provided with cattle/sheep, and also new farming equipment is bought (tractors, etc.). But apparently no performance contract was signed when the land was handed over to the farmers. Now they are up in arms as nothing is happening on the farms, bought the farms with taxpayers' money, spent more taxpayers' money getting the farms ready and equipped for the farmers and now they find everything was sold by the farmers and nothing is happening on the farms. This is firstly a waste of taxpayers' money, also contributing to high food prices as production is down and we are a net importer of food.

I personally believe that you cannot take someone without the knowledge and spirit of entrepreneurship and make that person a farmer or businessman. Can you imagine taking a business from a person (family business) in possession of the family for three or more generations and putting an operator in charge to own and run the business succesfully. It will never work, there is no experience and the spirit of entrepreneurship is lacking. This is not necessarily a race thing, I believe, but you are either born a farmer or you're not. You are born to run your own business and succeed, or you might be more satisfied and have a personally-type more suitable working for a boss (someone with the personality and entrepreneurial spirit and experience). - Hansie Potgieter

First, a farm is not really just about growing produce. It is a business. This is why land reform fails. The recipients have no business savvy. With this they need assistance. What I do not get is why take back anything. Surely it is not about redistributing farms, but redistributing land. So give the folks their land and let them be. If they would rather like some money a farmer can by the land back from them. These people may have been workers on the farms but that does not make them farmers. - Eben Roux

If people know what farming is all about they would have sympathy with these people.

Of course they need training and after that financial support to be able to start producing on those farms.

I farmed for 20 years and most white farmers received financial support from the government in the past. There are many black people who know how to farm but they don't know how to manage a farm or how to apply for a production loan. Imagine the government give you a farm but you don't have any money or knowledge of how to start farming. Very frustrating it must be.

I have drawn up plans and models of how to help these people help themselves but it seems I can't get hold of the right people the get such projects going. - Glen

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