A farm that brings hope

A group of subsistence farmers in the Western Cape have put their differences aside and come together to realise their individual dreams of owning a farm. Glenneis Kriel reports on the launch of Thembelitsha Farming.

- Glenneis Kriel

Daytona Farm in the Warm Bokkeveld near Ceres was once a prestigious horse stud farm. In the early 1990s, it was sold to government and transferred to a group of previously disadvantaged farmers as part of the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD) programme.

In spite of huge government investment to kick-start fruit production, the project was a failure and ended up being liquidated in 2015.

The founders of Partners in Agri Land Solutions (PALS), a private land reform initiative that started in Witzenberg, became concerned that Daytona might be lost to transformation, so started negotiations with government to keep the property for previously disadvantaged people from Witzenberg.

“Government was creating a list of possible beneficiaries from people all over the Western Cape, which was disconcerting considering the great hunger for land from our own vicinity,” says Yongama Femele, public liaison officer of PALS.

Around this time, subsistence livestock farmers in Nduli, an informal settlement near Ceres, were clashing with the Witzenberg municipality because of health concerns and public complaints, and PALS was trying to assist them with their own land. Realising that Daytona presented an excellent opportunity to address this conflict, PALS helped the farmers form a company, Daytona Farming (Pty) Ltd and motivated their claim to the farm. They made it onto the list of possible beneficiaries.

WORKING TOGETHER

A problem soon emerged, however. The farmers, who did not know one another well, differed strongly in their political ideologies, each having his or her own strong convictions on land reform, economic empowerment and land ownership.