Story of a dying farm, not the promised land

The 80ha farm Deo Valente was once in this category, but now it merely serves as an example of how land redistribution has gone wrong.

It now produces nothing - the pear orchards and fields that used to bear butternut by the truckload have not yielded a crop in nearly a decade.

The only income for the 86 families who have a share in the farm is the R4000 they charge another farmer to rent the shed for storage.

Government bought the farm for R2,3m in 1997.

In 1998 it was then transferred to a group of 86 families who had pooled the R16000 grant they each got from government to buy the farm.

The shortfall was made up with a loan from the Land Bank.

Initially the farm was managed by a committee of trustees headed by Piet Waterboer, an ANC councillor on the local Witzenberg municipality. He is now a DA councillor. In 2003 Waterboer stepped down and the current group of trustees, chaired by Isaac Snyers, was elected.

Snyers now lives in the farmhouse with his daughter Rachael. Seven other shareholder families live in various other sheds and buildings, including what was once the pigsty. There is also one family who moved onto the farm claiming to be shareholders. They are not, however, listed as such.

The Snyers family says that when they took charge of managing the farm, Waterboer told them there was R86000 in its account. But when they checked the bank account, they say, there was only R9000 in it. They also faced an electricity bill that was R11000 in arrears and a R900000 water bill.

Waterboer had, during his tenure as chairman, secured more money from the Land Bank but the farm books don't explain what this loan was spent on.

"We were also told [by Waterboer] that a piece of the farm had been sold for R400000 to cover some Land Bank debt. But the Land Bank doesn't know anything about this," says Rachael Snyers, who has complained to the local police but says they have not investigated what has happened.

When the FM asked Waterboer for comment he initially refused, claiming that the media was out to twist the truth. He then agreed to answer questions by e-mail. But he did not reply by the time of going to press and ignored follow-up calls asking for comment.

In addition to the families who live on the farm, the other beneficiaries live and work on other farms. They are supposed to help out on Deo Valente on weekends as part of an agreement that they would contribute "sweat capital".

But the Snyers say this never happens. They only show up for shareholder meetings where they "demand dividends", say the Snyers.

While it is clear that the farm could never sustain 86 families, Land Bank officials say Deo Valente is a typical example of the pitfalls of government's land reform model. Without substantial capital it is not possible to keep farms going. Though government does offer some financial support to help with input costs, this is not enough.

The money runs out quickly and does not cover the cost of the expensive equipment needed to run a commercial farm. Red tape also means this money takes a while, even years, to be paid to beneficiaries. Delays are disruptive in an industry where timing is everything. If land is not planted by a certain time, the crop will be lost.

But not every redistributed farm in the area is a failure. There is one farmer in the district who was a teacher at the local state school. His cash flow and education meant he was able to take on a farm on his own and make a go of it and now he is able to buy up others.

Source: Financial Mail