My name is Mosibudi Moyo, a 29
year old mother of a beautiful one year old son. He is my apple and my plan is
to leave a lasting legacy for him and other kids I will have in the near
future. In your government policies I fall within the youth empowerment, women
empowerment, black women empowerment, rural women empowerment and black economic
empowerment policies of your government. In theory with these beautiful
government policies that espouse the spirit of radical economic transformation
that has not left your lips in the last 4 years and more specifically, just
before the 54th ANC Elective Conference in December last year, I
should be one of the most successful black woman farmers and also tourist
resort owners in the country. But I am not. Not because I can’t. You bet I can,
but your government departments, from Rural Development, department of
Agriculture, Water and Sanitation and many others are systematically working
against people like me who show potential and zeal to succeed. I can attest
that in the past 2 years, they have worked almost in cahoots to make sure they
break and shatter every dream I have. Yet I have not asked for handouts or
freebies, just simple facilitation and guarantees so I would finalize my bond
with Landbank and own the farm I have tilled and toiled on since 2014. If the
government has been able to give guarantees for things like the 2010 Soccer
World Cup, why is it difficult to facilitate lesser guarantees for black
farmers, especially women, much more important as a matter of social and
economic justice?
I have addressed this letter to
both of you because, President Jacob Zuma, you are still the president of the
Republic of South Africa aided by Vice President Cyril Rhamaphosa. Better
still, Mr. Rhamaphosa, you are now the ANC president which is now the centre of
power which direct national policy. At the just ended conference, the ANC
resolved to speed up radical economic transformation, specifically land reform.
I have also chosen to write an open letter because unbeknown to you, I have
written to you several times in the past year, through your official emails,
your ministers and also your campaign platforms as well as the Presidential
hotline which is still to reply to me
Here is my simple story: I am a
farmer in Modimolle, Limpopo. The farm also has a 25 bedroomed lodge that needs
a revamp to realize its full potential. I have been leasing the 136 hectare
farm since 2014 from Aluette and Andre Vermaak, a beautiful Afrikaaner family.
They saw potential in what I wanted to do, a potential that has been frustrated
by your government departments over the past 2 years. It’s not every day that a
white family can just give you the keys to a farm with all that infrastructure.
I have ploughed a considerable amount of money into this project and have done
a lot of research into my farming venture. We specialize in indigenous
vegetables; like Chomoulier, MuChina, English Giant Rape, Okra and others. This
is a niche market whose market share is still to be fully developed. My aim is
to become the largest producer of these popular vegetables in Southern Africa
within the next 5 years. The export potential within the region and beyond is
huge.
Recently LBG Holdings, one of the
biggest game breeders in the country invited me for a 50/50, 5 year joint
venture to use the farm to breed rare game species, thereby adding to the
tourism experience on the farm. They will provide all the training needed, free
of charge over the next 5 year period. All I need is to put up electrified game
fencing and own the farm.
We also recently signed a trade
agreement with Cambridge Foods to supply our exotic indigenous vegetables in
their stores in Gauteng. The initial trials have been a success and the demand
is higher than we can produce, meaning expansion is of utmost importance. This
is groundbreaking as we seek to stamp our authority and claim the larger chunk
of this market share. My full potential is hampered by a lack of funds for
expansion, mechanization and irrigation.
We have also signed an agreement
with Kaya Grain of Limpopo for a contract farming of groundnuts with a
guaranteed market at the end of the season. Kaya Grain would supply inputs for
up to 60 hectares, including transportation at harvest time.
Our lodge is well marketed and
listed on booking portals across the world.
As Aluette and Andre Vermaak saw
my story turning into success, they approached me last year to discuss selling
the farm to me. I was over the moon – as you know, security of tenure is very
important for long term planning and commercial farming. I am also behind in
farm mechanization – much of the production has been done without a tractor,
farm implements or adequate irrigation. All I do is self funded.
With an Offer to Purchase the
farm, I then approached landbank for a bond in 2016. We have raised the 10%
deposit required amounting to R550 000 of the R5.5m loan. However challenges
have been on mechanization support needed by landbank. For this we approached
the department of agriculture and also rural development but the conduct of
officials in these two departments have been at best unbelievable and worst scandalous
to say the least. I just needed a mechanization support guarantee letter to finalize
my bond. How difficult could this be? Mr. Presidents, if your government could
issue guarantees for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, how difficult could it be to do
the same for a small black farmer in Modimolle? But the Department
of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) office
in Modimolle which we had been working with since 2014 through Sammy Lebele,
Deputy Director: Modimolle Agric seemed incapacitated to write a guarantee letter required by landbank to finalize my loan. After failing to get relief, we approached the Minister’s Office which sent the request to provincial and then back to Modimolle office. It seems this bruised a lot of egos as from then on, the powers that be at Modimolle then started actively sabotaging my endeavors. I just cannot explain it. Meetings with landbank were organized for the umpteenth time but nothing came of it. After assurances the guarantee letter would be done, Mr. Lebele of that office then sent me on a 4 month wild goose chase, claiming he was finalizing it only to come up with a substandard letter not fit even to be sent to a stokvel in the township. Later he was to confess he could not write the letter. This could have easily been said within 48 hours of meeting landbank but he took a whole 4 months to do that. If your officials are fully qualified in agriculture, do they understand the importance of time and planting seasons to farmers? The matter was soon to be pushed to some senior called Sandile Nowata in the Waterberg District who also promised to have the letter done, but ended up taking me on another 4 month wild goose chase before he finally would not answer his emails or his phone. That’s a year lost. Just like that. Have you done an audit of these departments lately? How many black farmers have come out successfully through these offices in the Waterberg District alone? If it takes close to a year to answer a simple query from me, how long will it take to transform the sector? In some email exchanges from the national department of agriculture, I was described by one official as ‘a low hanging fruit’ – meaning my request was simple and could be finalized with speed. But here we are, more than a year later.
Deputy Director: Modimolle Agric seemed incapacitated to write a guarantee letter required by landbank to finalize my loan. After failing to get relief, we approached the Minister’s Office which sent the request to provincial and then back to Modimolle office. It seems this bruised a lot of egos as from then on, the powers that be at Modimolle then started actively sabotaging my endeavors. I just cannot explain it. Meetings with landbank were organized for the umpteenth time but nothing came of it. After assurances the guarantee letter would be done, Mr. Lebele of that office then sent me on a 4 month wild goose chase, claiming he was finalizing it only to come up with a substandard letter not fit even to be sent to a stokvel in the township. Later he was to confess he could not write the letter. This could have easily been said within 48 hours of meeting landbank but he took a whole 4 months to do that. If your officials are fully qualified in agriculture, do they understand the importance of time and planting seasons to farmers? The matter was soon to be pushed to some senior called Sandile Nowata in the Waterberg District who also promised to have the letter done, but ended up taking me on another 4 month wild goose chase before he finally would not answer his emails or his phone. That’s a year lost. Just like that. Have you done an audit of these departments lately? How many black farmers have come out successfully through these offices in the Waterberg District alone? If it takes close to a year to answer a simple query from me, how long will it take to transform the sector? In some email exchanges from the national department of agriculture, I was described by one official as ‘a low hanging fruit’ – meaning my request was simple and could be finalized with speed. But here we are, more than a year later.
In 2016 I also approached the Department of Rural Development and
Land Reform (drdlr) with
the request for mechanization support guarantee letter. Ms Ramadimetja Peta, a
senior project officer as DRDLR Limpopo was dispatched on 16 August 2016. She was
impressed by my project. We seemed on course to get the support we needed as
our business plan was in place and the business was also operational with all
the markets and contracts in place, albeit on a small scale. Landbank was also satisfied
with everything else. A follow up email in September 2016 requested me to send
a list of the mechanization requirements. I did and she promised we would be
put in the new financial year starting April 2017. We waited and in January
2017, sent a reminder letter, she promised she was ontop of things. But that
story changed in March when excuses after excuses started coming. It was in May
that she finally told us rural development was broke and could not help us. I
requested official confirmation but it never came and she kept giving excuses.
In September I then wrote to the Minister’s Office which again sent it back to
provincial. This time I was engaged by the Chief Director, Julius Mashaphu who
seemed unaware of Ms Peta’s visit. He then dispatched yet another official,
Hlolo Mojapelo to the farm. They were all aware our lease was coming to an end
October 2017 with no possible extensions. After assessment and also seeing our
contracts and interactions with landbank, Mr. Mojapelo was positive the letter
of mechanization support would be drafted within a week. He immediately
submitted his positive report of the visit to the farm. But a month on Mr
Mashaphu started pretending he had forgotten of our project. We had to remind
him and then finally he would remember. After numerous excuses and signs of
irritation whenever I phoned to follow up, in November, finally phoned to
inform me rural development had rejected my request. He was quite evasive and
not forthcoming when asked about the reasons, only to say an official
confirmation will be sent. Just like that. It would be late December that the
letter would be finally written. My lease had long expired in October. The
letter is very dismissive and seems to have been written for the specific
purpose to rubber stamp an ill-fated and stage managed process.
One of the reasons given for the
rejection was that the department was concentrating on animal husbandry hence
our project did not qualify. But excuse me Mr. Presidents for asking: If Julius
was already well aware of the new rural development policy why did he waste
government resources sending Mr. Mojapelo to the farm when from the beginning
we had briefed him on what our project was all about? And why was Ms. Peta
dispatched to the farm in 2016 when my project, by virtue of it not fitting
into the rural development policy, could not qualify? And what kind of
government policy denies black farmers simple guarantees, especially those that
can fund their projects, for them to be successful farmers. Was Mr. Mashaphu
simply role playing after being sanctioned by the Minister’s Office? And why
waste close to 2 years to confirm what he had always known as department
policies are done in advance? Do you know, Mr. Presidents, how many planting
seasons I lost just waiting and hoping your government would issue me with a
simple guarantee letter? Surely if your officials are clued up with
agriculture, they would know that and would have rejected my requests outright
without wasting precious time, during which I spent thousands just to keep the
farm running until I finalise my security of tenure.
Another reason given for the
rejection was that our lease was too short for rural development to help. Where
did Mr. Mashaphu get this from? From the beginning I had explained I was on the
brink of getting a landbank bond for the farm and I needed a mechanization
support guarantee letter to finalize the process. So why talk about a short
lease in a whole official letter when the main reason for the request had been
so I can finalize my security of tenure by securing a landbank loan? Isn’t this
evidence of Mr. Mashaphu simply fumbling for non-existent reasons to justify
such a callous and calculate rejection? The last word from Mr. Mashaphu was
‘now you can take it up with my superiors if you are not satisfied’. He sounded
like an ego had been bruised and he finally had got me. But why? For starters,
it took 2 years, 2 officials and an appeal to the national department for me to
finally get an official response which used inaccurate information to finally
reject my request. Mr. Presidents, this is messed up and is not in keeping with
the spirit of radical economic transformation if you ask me. If these are the
same officials to implement RET as you refer to Radical Economic
Transformation, then good luck because if we are still alive in 2050, the
status quo will still be the order of the day. It is not that black people
can’t be farmers but the attitude of your officials has killed many a black
farmer and far from white people being a stumbling block to land reform, the
work starts in your offices – to change attitudes, scope and knowledge of what
agrarian reform is.
There is nothing wrong with my
project. I have put my hard earned resources to make it work. And I am not
asking for government to give me a farm. I have one that I have funded since
2014 and want to purchase it through landbank which also has shown faith in the
project. Not only that, Tswane and Johannesburg Fresh Produce Markets, Kaya
Grain, Cambridge Foods, LBGH game breeders and many others believe in this
project. This also includes Andre and Aluette, the current owners of the farm
who despite my lease having expired, have decided to hear my pleas to wait.
Ironically most of those that have believed in me are white and all of those
that have sent me from pillar to post are black and in positions that are meant
to advance radical economic transformation. I am about to lose my farm as the
owners can no longer wait just because those given the authority to radically
transform this country’s economy have no inkling of how that’s done. I employ a
lot of people from the poor Modimolle community and I have had to lay off some
as I wind down operations.
My question for you Mr.
Presidents is, can you save my farm along the lines of radical economic
transformation, youth empowerment, women empowerment, black women empowerment,
rural women empowerment and black economic empowerment for which I perfectly
qualify? I am not asking for you to buy my farm for me as I am well aware there
is a free higher and tertiary education bill waiting for you. I can buy my farm
but as a start up black farmer, I request a mechanization support guarantee
letter and I will never bother you again! Presidents Zuma and Rhamaphosa, can
you SAVE MY FARM?!
www.kransvley.wix.com/retlandreformfailure
Mosibudi
Rachel Moyo
