On 22 May, public works and infrastructure minister Patricia de Lille attended a title deed handover ceremony with president Cyril Ramaphosa.
“It is my singular honour to be here today with our President Cyril Ramaphosa and Cabinet colleagues for this long awaited and momentous occasion to hand over title deeds to the Tafelkop Farmers,” she said.
According to de Lille, she instructed officials from the department to work as swiftly as possible to finalise the deeds registration for the farmers “who have waited too long for this land redistribution matter to be finalised”.
The Deeds Office finalised this process between February and May this year.
“The history of this land redistribution case is long and the journey that Mr Jerry Sefoloshe and his fellow farmers had to endure to become the successful farmers they are today was not easy,” the minister said. “Today, as we hand over the title deeds, these proud black farmers in the beautiful province of Limpopo can now fully taste the fruits of our democracy and of their years of labour.”
She added that the government is working to reverse the impact and results of apartheid spacial planning through processes such as land tenure, land restitution, redistribution and expropriation.
The need for land and agrarian reform was identified at the dawn of South Africa’s new democracy.
“Land Redistribution as one of the three elements of land reform is aimed at providing redress to persons and communities dispossessed of their property rights by colonial and apartheid governments,” de Lille added.
“Over the years, while these processes are slow as government has to follow due process and ensure fairness and a credible land reform programme, we have seen many parcels of land returned to families dispossessed under apartheid legislation.”
In the past, these farms were occupied by white soldiers who had participated in the Second World War, and abandoned the farms in the 1980s. According to de Lille, people of colour who were part of the War only received bicycles.
“The white soldiers abandoned the farms in the mid 1980s and the municipality made a Mr Andries Stalls the care taker while the Municipality was planning to allocate the farms to 4 white farmers,” de Lille said.
“The Tafelkop farmers organised themselves on 14 April 1994 to be registered commercial farmers as the Tafelkop Farmers Association and started to engage Government looking for the correct custodian which was the Department of Public Works (DPW).”
In 2000, the then National Department of Agriculture entered into lease agreements, with an option to purchase, with the farmers in terms of Government’s Land Redistribution through Agricultural Development program.
In May 2008 as an interim governance measure, pending the transfer of the land from Public Works, the Department of Land Affairs entered into a caretakership agreements with the farmers.
In 2009, the Limpopo Department of Agriculture subsequently requested the DPW to transfer the State land to the identified Tafelkop farmers who had been in occupation of the farms since 1996.
In April 2010, the Department of Public Works acted on this request and the Minister of Public Works approved the gratis transfer of various portions of the Farm Loskop South totalling 189 hectares to the identified black farmers.
On 26 June 2011 National Treasury endorsed the gratis transfer of the land.
In October 2019, the DPWI engaged with the office of the State Attorney to speed up the transfer of the farms to the beneficiaries.
“Finally, in February and May 2021, DPWI received the 31 Title Deeds of the subdivided Portions of farm registered in the names of the beneficiaries – the farmers and their spouses,” the minister stated.
“The value of the 189 hectares of land now officially registered in the names of the farmers is worth more than R25.5 million. It has been a decades’ long journey for the farmers who have successfully farmed various agricultural produce including maize, onions, cabbages, spinach, soya beans and other vegetables as well as cotton and tobacco.”
The farmers started out in in the 1990s farming very small quantities of produce of between five and six tonnes per year, but can now produce between up to 60 tonnes of maize per farmer annually.
The farmers sell their produce to British American Tobacco, cotton to the Loskop Cotton Ginnery, fresh produce to Boxer Stores, Groblersdal Spar and other shopping stores in the region as well as to the Johannesburg and Pretoria Fresh Produce Markets. The farmers also provide a substantial portion of fresh produce to local school feeding schemes.
“Through receiving the title deeds for this land, the farmers intend to form partnerships with investors to expand market access and expand their output and offering,” de Lille said.
