In a dramatic showdown, the South African Farmers’ Development Association (Safda) and five other commodity organisations quit as members of the African Farmers’ Association of South Africa (Afasa). The resignation came moments after Afasa’s annual congress of which Safda was a main sponsor.
The decision to walk away from Afasa was due to a “lack of recognition and frustration”, says Safda chief executive Dr Siyabonga Madlala. In the end, it was better to walk away from Afasa because many of their concerns were not addressed.
Despite the Afasa congress being marketed as “the united voice of African farmers”, trouble started brewing early in the three-day event when Safda and other organisations were visibly upset with Afasa’s manner of doing business.
Besides Safda, the other organisations who turned their backs on Afasa are the African Game Ranchers Association (Agra), African Poultry Producers (APP), the Deciduous Fruit Development Chamber (DFDC), National Emerging Red Producers’ Organisation (Nerpo), and the South African Grain Farmers’ Association (Sagra).
Madlala says, “At the annual general meeting it was noted that the commodity organisations paid a levy towards Afasa – an amount of R375 000 – but we are not given an opportunity to sit in the national executive committee of the organisation.”
This was despite Safda co-hosting this year’s event. Even after Safda submitted a written letter to the congress, Afasa allegedly still refused access to its national executive committee, the highest decision-making structure.
Asked why Safda stayed on during the three-day congress despite clear differences, Madlala says the farmers’ development organisation could not allow its financial investment into the congress to go to waste. “We also hoped that our concerns would be addressed,” he adds.
Afasa storm brewing since 2014
A Matatiele-based farmer, Tebogo Mongoato, tells Food For Mzansi that despite keeping up public appearances over the last three days at the Durban ICC, Afasa finds itself in rocky waters.
“The AGM [on Sunday] was run in a style that is foreign to the culture of Afasa. Some of the provinces that formed part of the AGM had not gone into their AGMs as per the constitution,” explains Mongoato, a member of the South African Grain Farmers’ Association (Sagra).
In accordance with Afasa’s constitution, provincial meetings are to be held prior to the annual congress. This seemingly did not always happen in a procedurally correct manner with Afasa members in Mpumalanga even resulting to hosting its meeting in KwaZulu-Natal.
“So procedural processes were not followed in terms of notifying members that there would be a national AGM,” Mongoato adds. “We raised these issues but we were not listened to.”
Although a large part of the country’s leading black farmers have now walked away from Afasa, the storm has been brewing since 2014.
“We have been pursuing [Afasa] to say that [Afasa] is a federation [but] it did not have [the] hybrid of a federation [with] individual members, [as well as] commodities and cooperatives affiliated to it.”
Mongoato explains that these and other issues led to a constitutional amendment committee being elected in 2019. They were tasked to look into members’ concerns.
“At the AGM when we got the report from the [committee] it was not even a written report. It was a formal, by-the-way report [and] it showed non-commitment… so, we felt that we are being done in, and that people are not committed to the process.”
Meanwhile, egg producer Kobedi Pilane from African Poultry Producers cites ignorance as one of the reasons why this commodity organisation quit Afasa. He says Afasa likes talking about commodity issues of which it knows nothing about.
“We are being misrepresented by people who do not have an understanding, knowledge, and expertise of the commodities. Once you talk about commodities, you need experts who knows about those commodities,” he tells Food For Mzansi.
Pilane adds that Afasa left no time for debating during its congress, at which several cabinet members were speakers. This was experienced as a slap in the face by farmers who were facing serious challenges in their respective commodities.
A new home for black farmers
While the future of Afasa remains uncertain, Safda has this evening announced that it will be launching a new home for black farmers in South Africa. This organisation will be known as the Black Agricultural Commodities Federation (BACF).
“We are proud that we are launching a new home which is going to be the voice for black farmers, an organisation that wants change and policies that will be bettering the lives of the farmers,” Madlala says.
Insiders tell Food For Mzansi that BACF will be launched in partnership with the commodity organisations who resigned from Afasa, including other Afasa members who no longer want to be associated with it. Afasa was launched in April 2011 with 3 000 founding members from all nine provinces.
This decision has also been communicated with Afasa’s leadership.
“We will be formulating our memorandum of cooperation and we are hitting the ground running. The backlog of development and transformation is pushing us. We are already looking at setting up offices. There’s no time to waste,” Madlala adds.
Food For Mzansi has reached out to Afasa president AJ Mthembu for comment. The visibly saddened Afasa stalwart says he remains hopeful that the dispute between Safda and the other commodity organisations can still be resolved.
He explains that a proposed constitutional amendment was at the heart of the fallout. A request to push this through came on Sunday, on the day of the annual general meeting. Afasa could not accommodate this because it would’ve been procedurally unfair, according to Mthembu.
Yesterday, while addressing the Afasa congress, Mthembu said, “Ten years into existence as Afasa, we need to ask ourselves what impact we have had. If Afasa is dead tomorrow, who is going to miss it? [Who is going to] miss it for what? What value did they bring? What voice are they known for?
“When we are supposed to be doing advocacy and policy changing, we focus on less important issues. To bring it to you, if Afasa is dead today, it will not make any difference to anyone because it is known for being in meetings and clapping hands without implementing its resolutions.”
- Stay tuned to Food For Mzansi for the latest developments.
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