Ayanda Mdluli
JOHANNESBURG- More than 23 years after the dawn of democracy in SA, only a small fraction of land available for redistribution and finance meant for the development of black owned farming enterprises ever makes it to black farmers.
On top of that, black farmers in SA are still hindered by bureaucratic red tape and racially charged structural dynamics where white commercial farmers are entrenched in markets that leaves black owned farming enterprises at the margins of lucrative agricultural ventures.
In an exclusive interview with Africa News 24-7, Dr Vuyokazi Mahlati, the president of the African Farmers Association of SA (AFASA) said the entire pipeline in the whole land reform process in SA needed a refocus in order to address challenges facing black farmers at the core.
Black farmers in SA still needed to contend with a selection process for land and funding that is largely inefficient, not well aligned and time consuming which negatively impacts the agricultural production with devastating financial implications.
Currently, black farmers only have 11% of the total land that is meant for agricultural land reform and distribution. On top of that, out of its R39 billion loan book, the land Bank currently only allocates R2 billion to black owned farming enterprises while the rest is channelled through various institutions to white owned commercial farmers.
Collateral matters
She highlighted that at the core of the issues is collateral, while channels for distributing funding from the land back were also problematic and concentrated in the hands of established white businesses and commodity associations.
The tendency is to give money to white owned businesses. Retail financial institutions that can assist with channelling the money for blacks do not exist. We also find ourselves in a position where once land is allocated it sits for a long time without producing or action because the post settlement support is not comprehensive. We have resorted to monthly meetings with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and fisheries and the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development to try and address these challenges,” she said.
Furthermore, she highlighted that there was a prevailing social justice issue that was also prevalent, which required the industry body to align itself with a more area based focus by assisting in establishing district land committees. Although there were issues with implementation, the idea behind this was to ensure that land allocation was fast tracked from a local standpoint.
“We need to identify beneficiaries and get things moving so as to get the title deeds to people who want to farm, which is important when seeking finance from various institutions. The lack of an agricultural focused development finance institution has also proven problematic and that is a challenge that we need to overcome. We also discovered that there is no driving plan from a localised standpoint that informs that specific land allocation which is why need to have a clear sector plan across the board that highlights opportunities and trains committee members in order to get buy in from land owners,” explained Mahlati.
False narratives
In addition, black farmers had to contend with a false narrative that consistently insinuates that black people are not capable of farming, and that white owned commercial farmers were the bread and butter of the industry.
According to Mahlati, being black does not mean one cannot farm. Currently, in SA the problem is structural due to the unwillingness from white farmers to be part of the land reform processes. She called for government to be selective about the processes of allocation.
“Sometime the land goes to communities where not everyone can be a farmer which is why we need to make sure that post settlement process of assisting black farmers is firmly in place to carry out our strategic obligations. Currently, the sector is not channelling new entrants into the system. The very system that is made to empower blacks is also disenfranchising black people in a vicious circle. We have witnessed very little commitment in terms of reforming the system for agricultural growth. Part of the problem is that government transfers the land, but there is an incapacity with the post settlement. We need a system that will bring in qualified people to address that,” she said.
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