The recent past in Zimbabwe has shown us the ugly face of land claims. The images in the media of farmers being forcibly removed from their land and even, in some cases, killed, still burns in the minds of many.
In many cases, those once-fertile farms now lie in ruins, the new tenants unable, or unwilling to continue producing the food the country so desperately needs.
While that represents the unacceptable side of the issue, South Africa is also going through a process of land reform, and is determined to find a sustainable solution to what is a very difficult problem.
The country is aiming to restore land rights lost to the black community as a result of apartheid’s discriminatory laws, while a redistribution programme is aiming to provide previously disadvantaged poor people with access to land, both for residential and productive purposes.
At the end of 2004, more than 800,000 hectares of land had been handed back to black claimants and the government says it is confident of hitting its 2005 deadline which aims to have all land claims settled by the end of the year.
While some in the country doubt that target will be met, there is no doubting the impact the land reforms are likely to have. With large percentages of South Africa land devoted to agriculture, simply handing over the land without any form of plan could be disastrous for the country.
Many of the people re-claiming land do not have the skills and education required to maintain the level of production the country has developed. Without that training and expertise, the possibility exists that South Africa could soon find its industry dwindling and, as a result, the country’s standing in the world export markets would quickly drop away.
And with the amount of agricultural land likely to face a claim, that fear could easily become a reality.
“We expect around 30 per cent of agricultural land will be subjected to a land claim,” says Wiedse Kruger, general manager of avocado producer and exporter Afrupro.
But that might be a conservative estimate. Don Westcott, deputy chairman of the South African Avocado Growers Association, says the numbers could be even higher. “Up to around 80 per cent of sub-tropical farms have had one of more land claims made against them. The issue is certainly top of mind at the moment.”
If the figures are accurate, that could have a sizeable impact on South Africa’s fruit production. “It will definitely have an impact from the grower supply base and we may well see a drop in production in the short term, but the government is aware of the shortfall that can happen when claims go through, and they want to see something in place,” he says.
The government is learning through experience, having seen a number of failures in the past, and is addressing that potential for failure, says Westcott.
“It’s being taken very seriously by the government, there have been examples of total failure where there’s not been the infrastructure in place, the management or training.
“Now, one of the pre-requisites for a land claim is that there must be an acceptable plan on the table for the future.”
The reaction to the situation among the farming community is mixed, with some farmers recognising that change is inevitable and embracing the situation, some welcoming the opportunity to be bought out, while others dig their heels in and prepare to fight.
A simple look at the figures makes it clear change is unavoidable. Mike Scott, a citrus farmer facing a claim says: “The white population represents eight to 10 per cent of the population, yet owns 80 per cent of the land. It should be the other way round, that seems fairer to me.”
As this comment suggests, Scott is one of the farmers embracing the change. He and a group of farmers in the Hoedspruit area, in the Limpopo province, have joined forces to work with the black community to develop a viable plan to ensure the smooth handover of land, with the minimum of impact on production levels.
Scott says the moment they received the land claim they formed a committee among the farmers affected. “In all those farms, there’s a large number of people working for us, so we must do everything in our power to make sure no-one loses their job. It’s about ensuring the community benefits in the long term.”
The farmers have now formed a steering committee with members of the black community and are working with the citrus co-operative Citrus SA to develop a plan to present to the government’s land claim commission.
Gerrit Booyens, chief executive of Citrus SA, says it is vital the industry remains viable, no matter how the land is divided up. “Our key objective must be to remain competitive and commercial, particularly on the export markets.”
Booyens, along with the Hoedspruit community and farmers, are addressing that issue and hoping to develop a blueprint which other land claim initiatives will be able to follow. Finding the right solution is not going to be easy, says Booyens: “There isn’t a model we can follow, we are having to create the model. We have to take responsibility for ourselves. There have been few success stories on the land claims front.”
Trust between the farmers and the black community is a big issue. Several decades of apartheid and discrimination do not disappear overnight and that distrust has thrown a spanner in the works of many a land claim.
However, in the Hoedspruit area, the willingness of the farmers and the black community to work alongside each other is helping to dispel that.
Farmer Julius Katzke, who is chairing a committee of willing sellers, says: “I think the way we’ve approached the whole issue must be unique in this country, along with the level of trust that’s been formed.”
The fact the farmers that are willing to sell are not simply handing over the deeds and turning their backs on the community is playing a key part in that bridge building.
Thandios Mashile, a committee member, representing the community, says they are keen to have the farmers involved in production.
“It’s very important that we maintain the existing infrastructure and the markets for the produce remain undisturbed by this process.
“We’re very keen to see the farmers stay on and work with us. We’ve very much aware that people won’t have the skills to run the farms. We don’t want to acquire the land and, in a year’s time, see it become a desert.”
Katzke agrees: “The important thing is to make sure that we don’t lose the skills and the knowledge we have here. The danger is seeing the farms simply being taken over and going down the drain. We’re trying to prevent that by putting in sustainable structures.”
However Scott says farmers should not automatically assume they are staying on: “We’d like to be involved in the process if there’s the opportunity. If there is development to be done we would like to apply for the job. However farmers who want to stay must reapply for their jobs.”
He is confident the farming community will retain an interest and the area will continue to produce competitively. In some respects he feels there is opportunities to grow further. “I think there will be the opportunity to amalgamate farms and gain greater scale. There will also be the chance to knock out those areas that aren’t viable and create new farms.”
The Hoedspruit farmers and community see their attitude as the only way forward. Farmers refusing to accept the land claims are simply delaying the inevitable. Katzke says: “There is more than one mechanism the government can use to redistribute the land. Once this process is over, we could see disowning taking place, with people being thrown off the land, although that’s extreme.”
A planned orderly handover is vital if the South African fruit industry is to emerge unscathed. Scott says: “If we don’t do it this way, then production from South Africa will slip. We’ve seen some area that have lost tonnes of production and had to rebuild. That again was part of the lack of trust and people just working together.”
The speed of the process, however, remains frustrating, even with areas that are working hard and willing to accept change. Many of the people involved in the land claim at Hoedspruit are critical of the land commissioners, whom they see as holding up the process.
Scott adds: “It’s frustrating and I think the black community are even more critical than we are. This needs to move quickly, as at the moment, things are in limbo. When the claims went in, all development work on the farms stopped.” If the process is not resolved, those farms will begin to suffer from a lack of investment, he warns.
Booyens is confident that the work they are undertaking is the right way forward: “What we’re doing is rapidly becoming the model of how land claims should be handled. That’s not what I’m saying, but what people are saying about what we’re doing.”
Avocado producer HL Halls is one company that has been through the full experience of a land claim, says Robbie Taylor, fresh produce director. The company’s farm in the Nelspruit area used to cover 12,000 hectares, however, half of that land was handed over as part of a land claim.
“The whole process was full of challenges,” says Taylor. “There were a lot of misconceptions, particularly among the people getting the land about what they were actually going to get.”
He said the lack of education among the community was a difficulty: “On our farms, we have a board of directors with the skills to run a farm, but in their case, the most experienced people had simply been clerks. That was a challenge, there was a real need to get education and training in there.”
Trust was key, he says: “In the past, for a lot of the people, we’d been their employers, paying them wages etc, and now we’re treating them like customers, so there was an element of distrust at the start.”
Despite the difficulties, however, production hasn’t suffered. Fruit is still being produced to high standards and the claimants produce is still marketed through Halls. “We still support those farmers,” says Taylor. “We’ve formed a trust and the produce has been certified as Fairtrade.”
Despite the difficulties, he remains positive about the change. Having been a farmer in Zimbabwe, he knows how vital it is to get the handover right. “The redistribution of land is inevitable, but we need to appeal to the government to be sensible about it, to ensure our customers continue to get high quality product.”
However, he says while the bigger companies can work through the situation and sort it out, smaller producer were less capable. “For a single farmer, faced with these kinds of issues, it must be overwhelming. Some people will not be able to see beyond that and there will be failures.”
Despite this however, there are success stories, and if the Hoedspruit land claim initiative can give people something to aim towards, then South Africa should be able to navigate its way through the land claim minefield and maintain its place in the marketplace.
EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION
If the fruit industry is to survive the land claim process, then education is going to play a vital role, says Gerrit Booyens, chief executive of Citrus SA.
As part of the Hoedspruit land claim initiative, Booyens and his team are working to establish training schemes to help the black community maintain a competitive and effective industry.
“We’ve got funding for around 100 learnerships which are general skilling programmes for farm workers,” says Booyens. The first of the schemes will get underway in the Hoedspruit area from July 1.
The year-long course is made up of 36 weeks training, with a further 16 weeks practical placement in the industry, and falls under the national qualification framework.
On top of the overall teaching packages, individual courses are also being run, with training focuses on areas ranging from tractor driving to packhouse skills. “We’ve now had 1,300 people through those courses and certified,” says Booyens.
Further training is also being provided, focusing on adult basic literacy skills. “We’ve got around 1,500 people going through that training and its all computer aided, so people will be learning to operate a mouse before they learn how to use a pen.”
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