Emerging farmers ask Mashatile to save their land from unscrupulous officials

ILF letter paints a grim picture of maladministration

- By Bongani Mdakane

A desperate plea for intervention has landed on the desks of South Africa's highest offices, as more than 30 emerging black farmers in KwaZulu-Natal accuse corrupt officials of systematically sabotaging the very land redistribution programme designed to empower them.

The unfolding scandal, a detailed formal letter from the Izwi Labantu Forum (ILF) to Deputy President Paul Mashatile, Land Reform Minister Mzwanele Nyhontso and Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, paints a grim picture of egregious maladministration, intimidation and outright corruption within the provincial structures of the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD).

According to ILF chairperson Norma Mbatha, the farmers, who are beneficiaries of the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (Plas), are enduring a “reign of terror” that mocks the principles of the democratic Constitution and the Freedom Charter's edict that “the land shall be shared among those who work it”.

Instead of driving rural transformation and food security, these farmers face a coordinated assault on their livelihoods and dignity.