Durban — Three Western Cape-based black farmers have accused the government of running their business into the ground by refusing to grant them a lease agreement that would guarantee their security of tenure on their farm.
Johannes Bezuidenhout, Herold Bezuidenhout and Jan Bergh are sheep farmers operating under their Nuveld Farming Empowerment Enterprise. Their business was thriving and viewed as a good example of what previously disadvantaged community members could do if given opportunities.
“However, the success we have achieved is now being threatened by the same department that gave us access to the farm in the first place,” said Johannes Bezuidenhout, referring to the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development.
In April, the three partners, with the help of the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), sought the intervention of the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town to force the department to grant them a 30-year lease agreement. Their fight received support from the Helen Suzman Foundation (HSF), which applied to be a friend of the court.
Johannes, 54, who spoke on behalf of his two partners in the court papers, said their small farming company, formed in 2017, had been booming and winning awards for sheep shearing and wool production in the Central Karoo area of the Western Cape.
He grew up in a family that did not own a farm, but he would spend most of the time helping his father to care for his employer’s animals.
After leaving school he found employment not related to farming. However, at a later stage Johannes learnt that there was a possibility of getting land by applying to the department, which he did in 2006.
The department only responded to his application three years later, telling him that there was a piece of land, which was part of Plateau Farm near Beaufort West, available for him to use.
After being shown Rondawel farm, he resigned from work in anticipation of “a dream come true”. “Since 2009, the other applicants and I have been farming wool sheep, initially as members of different entities but since 2017 as one entity,” said Johannes.
Department spokesperson Reggie Ngcobo said the department had filed responding court papers, and declined to comment further.
Johannes said the department’s action was threatening their success.
“Despite the fact that we successfully completed the application process and interviews, scored the highest of all applicants by far, and were recommended for a long-term lease by the district beneficiary selection committee and committees at all levels of the department, the acting chief director (name not revealed) and second respondent decided that we cannot get the lease, for reasons that are irrational and unreasonable.
HSF was concerned that the three farming partners were victims of “decades-long policy confusion at the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development regarding how land is redistributed in South Africa”. HSF said the department lacked a clear policy in carrying out its land redistribution obligations.
LRC said in a statement on its website that the legal action would “seek systemic relief that will impact the way redistribution programmes are undertaken in South Africa”.
Sunday Tribune