At a farm tucked away in Committees Drift, approximately 30km outside of Grahamstown, vegetables grow abundantly. From cabbages to butternut and mealies – which are the most popular with customers. The farm is run by a group of families who use it as a means for survival, but more importantly it provides them with a daily purpose.
At a farm tucked away in Committees Drift, approximately 30km outside of Grahamstown, vegetables grow abundantly. From cabbages to butternut and mealies – which are the most popular with customers. The farm is run by a group of families who use it as a means for survival, but more importantly it provides them with a daily purpose.
At closer inspection, however, the cabbage leaves suffer from the bites of insects, and a large hectare of land, generous with, sits unused. The families have this problem because of a lack of basic equipment and things like pesticides. They can only receive support once they see the other side of a little bureaucratic speed bump, which is registering the land in their name. It's been two years since their lawyer began challenging local government about this, and the hurdle is yet to be overcome.
The farmers are a group of five families that have established their own project called Manga Small Scale Farming. They stay a 30 minute walk away and travel to the farm every day, but say the distance is nothing to them because they love their jobs. But for now the land is state-owned, said Lungelwa Booi, one of the farm workers.
It previously belonged to a farmer who sold it to the government in 2008, and was then leased to a tenant who stopped paying rent for the land and whose contract was terminated. Booi's and the other families have since been farming on the land. “We sell our vegetables to the Peddie Spar and also on the side of the road," she said. Booi admits that they are struggling though, because of competition with more experienced farmers who have better equipment. "We try to get by with what we know and have,” she said.
They also have a hectare of land where lucerne grows that remains unused because they cannot cut the crop without the right tools. Weeds have also spread across the lucerne and are killing the plants that the farmers use to feed their animals and sell to other farmers.
Despite their need for better tools they have not tried to take out a loan, because Booi said that they would rather apply for financial support which is another challenge that they face. They already manage their sales themselves and have a bookkeeping system, but they would like to draw up a business plan which they would need help to do, she said.
In early July last year government officials came to hear the farmers' problems and they said they would send people from management down to them, but the farmers are still waiting.
The families have received some help, however, from a lawyer, advocate Francois Human, who is handling the case on a pro bono basis. “I know the frustration of these people," said Human. "It is their forefather’s land, but they never claimed it.” He has been helping them for the past two years and described the process as very slow. At this stage he is trying to get a meeting with Makana Municipality and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform. “All they want to do is work and be productive,” he said.
Human doesn't understand why the land reform department has not yet put the claim in because the families have lived on the property for years. He is also puzzled as to why the previous tenant of the land was allocated with it. "He wasn’t even a farmer," Human said.
In a letter dated 25 August 2010 from the department to Human, it stated that "The current Ministerial position on State land does not allow the Department to dispose any land to a specific person/group or communities."
Grocott's Mail contacted the local agriculture office who said they were aware of this case.They said it was out of their hands as they cannot offer the families any support until the land is registered in their name. They stated that support is determined by their budget. Grocott's Mail<\ital> also made numerous calls and sent faxes to the district office of the Department of Rural development and Land Reform as a request for comment. A period of two weeks has gone past with no comment received from either departments.
