ELGIN Grabouwer
Community
26 September 2014
5
Land reform: come up with a workable solution soon or…
by JAN GREYLING
“Land reform is the main driver of
politics in South Africa.”
According to Aggrey Mahanjana
of the African Farmer’s Association
of South Africa, AFASA his organisation rejected Minister Gugile
Nkwinti’s 50/50 proposal and has a
workable plan to offer the Government.
Mahanjana was one of the panel
members at the Agri Mega Week
2014 Agri Mega Group Land Reform debate in the Santam Agriculture Auditorium at Mega Park,
Bredasdorp on Friday morning.
On the eve of the Western Cape
Land Reform Summit called by Minister Alan Winde, Minister of Economic Opportunities in the province
on Monday in Stellenbosch, he told
the Bredasdorp audience that land
reform is a risk that needs to be dealt
with. “If we do not deal with it and
put it behind us, we will be missing
economic opportunities and leave
gaps that the Chinese will happily
fill.”
Both panelists and members of the
audience concluded that the agricultural sector will need to come togeth-
er and come up with a workable
solution soon or face a policy that
will be detrimental to the sector and
South Africa’s food security.
Rabelani Dagadi, a Development
Economist from Wits University
made it clear that he does not believe
that the extreme measures proposed
by Min Nkwinti to hand 50% of
farm land to the farmworkers will
ever happen.
He supports land reform but not
land being taken away from white
farmers. “South Africa needs an
agricultural revolution, people need
to know that the farmer is not the
enemy, he is the provider of our
food,” Dagadi said.
While discussions about land reform in South Africa usually make
for heated debates and the flaring of
tempers the discussion ended surprisingly calm, with panel members
and members of the audience agreeing on more issues about a need to
have process, than what they differed.
Dr John Purchase, CEO of A gbiz
pointed out that some farmland in
South Africa has a cumulative value
of R180 billion whilst the total debt
on this land is about R100 billion.
FLTR Dr Piet Croucamp (Political Analyst), Aggrey Mahanjana (AFASA),
Orton King (Group Executive Director: Agri Mega Group), Rabelani Dagadi
(Wits Business School), Min Alan Winde (Economic opportunities: Western
Cape) and Dr John Purchase (CEO: Agbiz).
“Effectively the banks own 60% of
the farming land in South Africa,”
Purchase stated.
Dr Piet Croucamp, from the University of Johannesburg said that
most agricultural stakeholders agree
that land reform should take place.
“We should use this consensus and
buy into the National Development
Plan (NDP),” he said.
According to Croucamp the protection that farmers need is encompassed in the NDP and only need
some tweaking for the different commodities.
Where there is a will,
there is a way ...
These are the words of independent recycling contractor, Boy Japhta,
based in Slangpark community in Grabouw. For the past three years, Boy
has been diligently bringing his recycled materials, primarily PET and HD
bottles, to TWK Recycling in Grabouw Industrial area. Some days, Boy travels distances exceeding 9 km’s when he is out on his collection routes. He
believes that his disability will not hold him back from earning and honest
income, from playing his role in keeping Grabouw community clean and
from occasionally even helping out those around him who are in need. Boy
uses some of his income to buy sweets, ships and drinks for his home-based
shop, where he often trades sweets for recyclables from his local community. According to Carol Jacobs, Production Manager at TWK Recycling, Boy is
always friendly and a pleasure to work with. He is a real role model to the
unemployed people of Grabouw with his sincere motto of ... where there is
a will there is a way.
- By Jo Kearney 074 207 1721 @twkrecycling.co.za