While government continues to “avoid, evade and ignore” conflicts over communal land, many farmers are bullied by tribal authorities. They can’t make any decisions about the land on which they farm and struggle to grow their agribusinesses because they don’t have title deeds.
South Africa has about 18 million hectares of communal land. This is owned by government, but managed by tribal authorities. While the arable portions of this land is often accessible to all those who want to farm, farmers have little decision-making authority as the land does not belong to them.
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, an advocate, political activist and Business Day columnist, says, “If anyone could provide political direction over the place of communal land and the relationship between the chiefs and the people, it is the ANC. Its strategy, however, has been to avoid, evade and ignore the conflicts over communal land.”
You’ll need a thick skin to farm on communal land, North West livestock farmer Mmadipilo Letlape tells Food For Mzansi. She farms in Lesung village.
“My bull is everyone’s bull, and everyone’s bull is mine so there’s more than 50% chance that I don’t get my Simbra calves,” she laments. “My cousins don’t have a bull and they are reaping our benefits from our bulls and there’s nothing we can do about it. I cannot even fix the kraal because that will benefit everyone at my costs.”
She doesn’t own the land on which she farms and therefore cannot get a title deed for it – a big blow to her future growth as a farmer.
Letlape adds, “I cannot start my own thing [while I’m on communal land]. I am hoping to get my own land and move [away]. The road to the farm when it rains it’s unbearable. No car can drive in and, again, I cannot fix that at my own costs [when other] people are going to benefit from it.”
Other challenges include the inability to make quick decisions in the interest of the farm. Often there are big delays after she asks for permission, and other times her requests are declined by the tribal decisionmakers.
‘I got bullied…’
Mpumalanga crop farmer Sphesihle Chata details how he was forced to request to buy land in his village in Bethal, 155km east of Johannesburg.
He explains, “After I worked the land and everything was going smoothly a group of people came and claimed that they used to farm on the same land and wanted it back.
“I had to abandon all my hard work and engage the tribal authorities where I asked if I could not pay a certain amount and use the space for a longer period because you cannot buy it or get a title deed for it. The only thing I got was a confirmation letter from the authorities that I could use the land, but is it challenging.”
Chata, who farms with maize and dry beans, says it was important for government to legislate how communal land is to be allocated and managed.
Keaboka Motsemme from Mahikeng in North West is equally frustrated by the power games played by some tribal authorities. Late last year she presented a plan to the authorities to receive a portion of arable land on which she wanted to farm.
This request was declined. “All I wanted was to take my farming to another level and move out of the backyard farm that I used. I was told the land I needed was earmarked for other developments by government, so I left it at that,” she explains.
‘Tribal authorities must do better’
Food For Mzansi has also reached out to a tribal leader from Bakwena baa Morare in the Pella village of North West. He asked to remain anonymous as he was not delegated to speak to the media although he has great empathy with some of the farmers’ frustration.
“We have had a case of a young lady who came through and wanted to farm. It was not a very huge land that they were asking for. However, the tribal council refused on a basis that I cannot reveal.
“We can do a lot better as a tribal authority to ensure that land becomes available because we have seen a growing interest of young people who want to farm and make a living out of it. So, [in terms of] how we do things, we need to look at it carefully and urgently,” he says.
‘Alarm bells should be ringing’
An earlier report by the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (Plaas) at the University of the Western Cape found that government was slow in responding to the concerns of many farmers who needed land.
“It is unacceptable that over and above undue delays in granting people their dues and rights to land, the government acts in these ways,” argued researchers Constance Mogale and Katlego Ramantsima.
Mogale is the national coordinator for the Alliance for Rural Democracy and Ramantsima is a researcher and PhD student in the SARChI chair at Plaas.
“The land is such a contentious issue in South Africa. And the government has no interest in handling this matter in a way that is just, fair, and transparent. Alarm bells should be ringing,” Mogale and Ramantsima wrote in their report.
“In light of the already overcrowded communal land with overlapping rights, the other leg of land reform which is the redistribution and restitution act is critical. What is the progress towards finalising restitution claims?”
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