Leadership and vision ensure success for community company

Since 2000, the government has invested more than R74 million in the Blocuso community in the Northern Cape. Dirk Claassen, financial manager of the Blocuso company, spoke to Glenneis Kriel about how the community has managed these funds to establish and run a thriving wine grape and raisin farm

- Glenneis Kriel

The Blocuso community was formed more than 60 years ago after the Congregational Church bought the farms Bloemsmond, Curriescamp and Soverby near Keimoes in the Orange River Valley. The church divided the land into small irrigation plots, renting them out to local community members for wheat, lucerne and cotton production.

(The name Blocuso is derived from a combination of the first two letters of these farms.)

In 2000, the government helped the community to buy the farms from the church for just under R7,5 million through the Settlement Land Acquisition Grant (SLAG). Since then, it has invested more than R74 million to unlock more value for the community from this land.

How did the community motivate these investments? Dirk Claassen, financial manager of Blocuso Landgoed, pays tribute to the visionary leaders of the community.

“Our leaders lobbied for the development of the land because they realised it would have a much bigger socio-economic impact than if it were left underdeveloped. Government, in turn, looked favourably on their proposals, as the development promised to benefit 466 households and not just a handful, as often happen with these types of deals,” he recalls.

THE COMMUNITY BENEFITS 

Development funding was used to build infrastructure, buy equipment, establish lands, and pay salaries. A 3km pipeline, a pump station, and a 22 000m³ water reservoir were built and more than 50ha were planted to vineyards, of which 25ha were wine and juice grape varieties and 25ha raisin varieties.