The Makana goat farm project has been faced with numerous setbacks over the years, including the mismanagement of funds, mortality of the goats and incomplete infrastructure.
The Makana goat farm project has been faced with numerous setbacks over the years, including the mismanagement of funds, mortality of the goats and incomplete infrastructure.
Surprisingly, steady progress was reported at the Economic Development, Tourism and Heritage (EDTH) portfolio committee meeting this week, which caused councillors to enquire about when the project will finally bear fruit.
“There are always problems,” said councillor Thandeka Veliti, expressing the council’s frustration with this problematic project.
She took an example from the minutes of a recent Project Management Committee (PMC), meeting where the committee made it clear that they will no longer tolerate that the Project Manager, Simthembile Mamani fails to present the required reports and documents to them for consideration.
Veliti said that the project did not reflect on the municipality at all positively. “When we look at the Project Manager, is he going to take the project where it should be?” Veliti asked.
Local Economic Director, Riana Meiring clarified that Mamani is employed by the Makana Goat Farmers Cooperative which manages the project and is an agri-business initiative formed by farmers in the Makana area.
Meiring added that the issue of his non-compliance in submitting documents was addressed in a meeting on Wednesday this week.
She said that there has been negotiations with Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) to appoint an expert in project management to assist him as well as a marketing strategy conducted by SEDA.
Cacadu District Municipality have also been assisting through bringing in a mentor to guide them with the farming. “The co-op has taken some steps to tighten and monitor the project.
Three committees, namely: infrastructure, marketing, finance; and stock and feeding have been set up to assist the project manager and the chairperson,” Meiring said.
“The PMC took a hard stance, if these things are not in place by the next PMC meeting, steps will have to be taken,” she said.
According to the recent PMC minutes, the goat project has submitted a request for another six month’s extension to the contracting authority due to delays concerning the roll-out of infrastructure.
The progress of the infrastructure roll out plan has seen completed goat sheds and fencing of camps at Riebeek East and some renovations have been done at Gletwyn and Inneskilling farms.
According to the report, “Ploughing has commenced and it is anticipated that 200 bales of lucerne which is a grass grown specifically for grazing, are to be produced by the end of May.”
The chairperson of the Makana Goat Farmers Cooperative Mike Mamkeli said there are currently 103 goats that are being kept on Gletwyn Farm, which is in the Manley Flats area.
“We are busy at the moment with setting up infrastructure, once that is done, we will go into the pilot phase and install the infrastructure in Inneskilling farm and then move onto setting up the milking parlour.”
He said that a R620 000 loan from Umvimba Finance had to be requested to allow the project to continue.
He also added that a mentor for guiding the co-op in terms of the goat farming such as feed management has been appointed which should take off at the beginning of July once the infrastructure roll-out has been completed.
