Inexperience, chaos, infighting lead to collapse of KZN land claims dreams

The derelict remains of a milking shed at the Ponderosa farm land reform project near Ixopo. (Photo:Tony Carnie)

By Tony Carnie

1 Sep 2024

In Kwazulu-Natal, a mere 3% of Communal Property Associations – the legal bodies set up to represent land claimants – are compliant with basic legal requirements, often resulting in large swathes of formerly productive land lying unfarmed or underutilised.

There are more than 1,700 Communal Property Associations (CPAs) scattered across the country. These are the legal bodies set up to represent the interests of roughly 380,000 people and groups who have lodged land claims since 1996.

Yet only 7% of these bodies are operating lawfully following a nearly three-decades-long land restitution process that has led to about 83,000 land claims being settled nationwide at a cost of close to R58-billion

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-09-01-we-dont-have-jobs-post-1996-farmland-restitution-projects-sow-a-costly-legacy-of-failure/

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) has lauded its restitution process and cited several success stories, but acknowledges that the large number of claimants lumped together within CPAs often creates some “challenges”

In plain language, most CPAs are in a royal mess, with many riven by infighting, legal paralysis, funding shortages and a lack of accountability to members.

The department reported that in one such case in KwaZulu-Natal, CPA members are fighting over timber plantations, crop fields, the illegal allocation of sites and the embezzlement of association funds by committee members.

Of the 1,734 CPAs nationwide, just 7% are compliant with the Communal Property Associations Act, which requires these bodies to hold annual meetings, produce yearly financial statements and keep up-to-date registers of its members and elected committee leaders.

In KZN, only 3% of CPAs meet these basic legal requirements, often resulting in large swathes of formerly productive land lying fallow or underutilised.

kzn land claims A farm worker ploughs a maize field on a commercial farm near Dannhauser in KwaZulu-Natal: (Photo: Tony Carnie)

Arguably, one of the biggest problems is the structure of these associations, where the sheer number of members makes it almost impossible to achieve unified decisions – even at a smaller family level.

A recent DALLRD report noted that conflict within CPAs is often exacerbated by disputes within polygamous family structures.

Such conflicts come as no surprise to veteran KZN farmer John Bredin. “There are literally hundreds of people out of work in my immediate vicinity because of land reform failures,” he says.

“When there is no money, it is inevitable that some people will resort to crime out of desperation, and the people who are suffering most are the beneficiaries. That’s the irony.”

kzn land claims bredin Veteran dairy farmer John Bredin. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

Bredin (77), a dairy farmer from the Ixopo district and former chairman of the Clover dairy group, says he is not opposed to land reform, but rather how it has unfolded.

“Farms have been handed over to claimant committees with absolutely no skills,” he says, noting that CPAs are often made up of large numbers of people with different views and aspirations, and no experience of running a modern commercial farm.

“You cannot hope to run a big farm by committee, especially when it’s divided. You require a skilled and experienced leader at the top, making vital decisions on a daily basis.

“As fellow farmers, we have been offering our expertise to emerging farmers and to the government. But this is often ignored. In some cases, it’s almost as if we are the enemy – yet we have decades of skills that we can offer.”

kzn land claims A tractor rumbles past a line of cattle on a commercial dairy farm near Ixopo. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

Bredin and fellow farmers from the Ixopo, Highflats and Kokstad area established a non-profit organisation six years ago – Harry Gwala Agri – with the broad aim of helping to reduce rural unemployment and food insecurity by upskilling and facilitating growth among aspiring farmers.

“In our immediate area, several farms have been purchased at a cost of possibly R100-million (excluding recapitalisation grants), but the few that are working properly are mostly those where commercial farmers have leased back some of the land from communities,” Bredin says.

“We now have unemployment on a huge scale, and there are also very serious implications for food security if the new farms are not productive.

“Already we are seeing agricultural service businesses closing down around Ixopo because there are fewer and fewer active farms and hence opportunities to provide services. There is virtually nothing coming off most of these farms,” he says.

kzn land claims Highflats farmer Dougie Strachan (left) and Madakweni residents Thulani Dhlamini and Bernard Gcabashe demonstrate a low-cost seed planting method designed for elderly farmers. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

“I’m nearing the end of my career, but it’s still terribly sad to see a once-vibrant farming district disintegrating. I’m talking about a massive area stretching from Ixopo southwards to the sea.”

Some of Bredin’s concerns seem to have been acknowledged by the Harry Gwala District Municipality, which has an economy based largely on commercial farming and timber plantations.

In its most recent integrated development plan, the municipality reported: “Recently, there has been a slight decline in the agricultural output within the district. This may have been caused by uncertainties surrounding land reform.

“There is also an issue of lack of skills from the land reform beneficiaries and poor infrastructure, and the underdevelopment of Traditional Authority areas has also played a role in the decline of agricultural output.”

Quite apart from his concerns about food security and unemployment, Bredin is also worried about the spread of animal diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease or Bovine trichomoniasis (trich), along with uncontrolled veld fires spreading from farms that are not well managed.

“Over the last few years we have had a huge outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in several parts of the country, because disease control is now almost non-existent. There is a disaster coming. It’s just a matter of when,” he says, noting that a large dairy firm in his district recently lost its export licence because of concerns about the spread of foot-and-mouth.

Bredin also questions the effectiveness of government support schemes for emerging farmers, citing examples of large consignments of fertiliser lying unused or sold off cheaply to third parties because the beneficiaries do not have storage space or the technical know-how to apply the fertilisers.

He says there has also been a major increase in the number of uncontrolled veld fires in the district over the winter months, because firebreaks are not being cleared regularly on poorly managed farms.

In August, one such fire very nearly burnt down his home and those of his staff.

Dave Shewan, head of the Highflats-Ixopo Farmers Association, reports that there has been a “massive surge” in illegal hunts using dogs over the past 18 months on several claimed farms, with dog owners placing bets on their packs killing the most game species.

“This has led to a lot of conflict because of the threats to endangered species, such as oribi antelope, as well as cases of commercial livestock being killed during these hunts.”

Daily Maverick sent a detailed list of questions to DALRRD on 14 August about the land reform process in the Ixopo area, mainly focused on the visible failure of two land restitution projects at Dawn Valley and Ponderosa farms (Read in Part One of this series), but the department has so far not responded.

However, the department’s own reports acknowledge a host of serious, unresolved problems with CPAs.

kzn land claims Thobekile Mvemve was one of the many rural residents hoping to benefit from a failed land reform project at Dawn Valley farm near Ixopo. (Photo: Tony Carnie)

Back in 2016, the then DALRRD minister, Gugile Nkwinti, observed bluntly that the first annual report on the state of CPAs had revealed a bleak picture. His officials further reported that compliance with the CPA Act and Regulations “was next to non-existent”.

According to the department, some of the worst examples involve property claims where the land contained rich mineral deposits or had good agricultural potential.

This made CPAs vulnerable to the influence of third parties such as business people and political figures.

“In most instances they induce [CPA] members to establish factions that are favourable to them.”

At that time, there were more than 350 registered CPAs in KZN, but only 19 complied with legal requirements.

Nkwinti’s department reported that it had launched a major “turn-around strategy” to remedy dysfunctional CPAs.

kzn land claims manual A land claims manual from 2014. (Source: Commission on Restitution of Land Rights)

Nearly a decade later, however, little seems to have changed.

In the latest available CPA annual report, former DALRRD minister Thoko Didiza confirmed that she held a series of meetings with CPA leaders to get a better understanding of the “governance dynamics at play”.

“With the meetings held to date, one has experienced mixed levels of accountability of these executives, with some CPAs recording excellent performance, while others performed poorly.”

She further acknowledged that in some areas, there were still tensions between CPA executives and the traditional leadership, and her department was finalising another report to resolve the continuing CPA “challenges”.

Elaborating on these challenges, her department reported that many CPA members had simply lost interest in participating in the affairs of their associations because of internal conflicts.

“This makes it difficult to update their membership after many years of the members not coming together. The committee(s) struggle to call meetings that form quorums because some members may be deceased or have relocated over the years without the committee updating their records.

“The inability to hold meetings that are quorate often leads to paralysis within CPAs, which creates opportunity for outsiders to invade CPA land.”

Another major difficulty was the continued tension between traditional authorities and CPAs.

“Most of the restitution claims that were lodged by traditional authorities on behalf of their communities were settled through the restitution of land to CPAs formed by the communities.

“This is perceived by the traditional authorities as being contrary to their expectations that land will be transferred to them. Establishment of CPAs within the traditional communities is perceived as creating two competing institutions both responsible for land administration and allocation.

“The existence of two centres of power has created a permanent power struggle. It is unfortunate that most CPA constitutions do not have clauses that provide for this eventuality.”

The lack of suitable management and administrative skills within CPAs was also a “major contributing factor to most CPAs not complying”.

“Committee members are generally elected because of popularity as opposed to competency. In some CPAs, elderly persons prefer to elect their fellow elders and are reluctant to elect young people. This is based on the perceived penchant of the youth to be rowdy and disruptive during meetings.

“The exclusion of the youth deprives CPAs the benefit of using the skills, education and knowledge of the youth to improve their administration and governance.”

The department further noted that some CPA members entered into legal agreements with third parties without a proper understanding and knowledge of the legal implications of their decisions.

This exposed CPAs to the risk of losing their assets when third parties enforced their rights. Most CPAs also lacked operating capital to engage in their chosen agricultural activities, as well as business and legal support to enter into partnerships with potential investors and partners

The government report cites several examples in KZN where property associations remain divided.

kzn land claims ponderosa The derelict remains of a milking shed at the Ponderosa farm land reform project near Ixopo. (Photo:Tony Carnie)

In the Phakamani CPA, three families shared a single farm but were not “getting along”. One family wanted to graze livestock, the second family wanted to grow crops, and the third family was caught in the middle, resulting in some violent disputes where the police had to be called in to make arrests.

More squabbles were evident following a claim by the Thaphashiya CPA on land containing a timber plantation. Because the land was not owned legally by the community, chiefs as well as community members were demanding dividends from a large forestry company – which had now decided to withhold the money until the dispute was resolved.

In the Ekuthuleni CPA, “there is a conflict among the CPA members, as some members of the CPA are chiefs who want the land to be under the tribal authority. Several meetings have been conducted; the CPA members do not want to be under the tribal authority but when there is a meeting, they fear to be vocal about their decision as some committee members we gun down (sic).” DM

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