While the focus over the next weeks and months will be on white farmers and some opportunistic elements who will take their one-way tickets to the US while crying wolf, what is likely to be lost in the debate is the need to transform the agricultural sector.
Protocol was broken last Saturday — by none other than WhatsApp group administrator Johan. This was a rather peculiar incident as Johan is usually quick to remind “members” that the group is only for security matters related to the farming community of the Kwelera Valley.
As if to wag the proverbial finger, those members who break the rules are usually given a quick recap of the group’s purpose.
The aptly named “Rural Safety SOS” is a small community group with 44 members who are made up of black and white farmers, the station commander from the local Blue Waters police station, the universally loved Sergeant Metu and a few community representatives from the local villages — Zozo, Gwaba, Jongilanga and Luphindweni.
Without being explicitly stated, it is commonly understood that politics is anathema to the group’s ethos.
Until recently the WhatsApp group was only for the “farmers” and members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) attached to the local police station. But growing tensions between the farmers (black and white) and local rural communities led to the broadening of the group to include the representatives of the neighbouring villages.
The farmers were broadly accused of shooting cattle belonging to the villagers. On the other hand, the farming community was, and remains, unhappy about the unmanned communal cattle that wander into their properties, destroying crops and competing with the commercial stock for grazing.
Infringements
To manage the tensions it was agreed that the community representatives would join the group and that farmers would alert the group about any infringements by the village cattle.
The only time politics is allowed is when it involves parochial issues affecting the valley. For instance, the farming community is still divided over a petition to allow off-road racing in the area. Some farmers feel that the commitments made by the organisers of the road race would benefit the community.
Apart from the economic spin-offs, the organisers also pledged to maintain the road that serves the community. The road is currently maintained by farming families from their own pockets — where each farm is asked to contribute towards the hiring of the grader and a road roller. On the opposing end of the “development” is a powerful duo — a labour lawyer and a retired academic — who also happen to be in-laws. The two men’s families live next to each other, and the one’s daughter is married to the other’s son. They have openly objected to the mooted race, arguing that such a spectacle would offend the pristine nature of the valley.
Such are the issues that come up for discussion on the WhatsApp group, hence it was rather odd when Johan posted a link to a “news” article, accompanied by the caption: “I don’t know how true this is, but…” — before the potential reader was directed to press the “translate button at the top” for the English version.
It was a 2018 article, written in Afrikaans, which boldly warned of a “list” of more than 100 farms that were earmarked to be expropriated without compensation.
I was the first to point out that not only was the fear-mongering article written almost seven years ago, but that the quoted “Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane” had not led the Rural Development and Land Reform Department beyond the 2019 elections.
The relative peace and calm that usually prevails over the valley was momentarily broken. No one else said anything, but both messages were well read.
Texts deleted
It was not long before the original post and my response were deleted by the administrator, Johan. Perhaps that rebuttal reminded him of the group’s original purpose.
A day later Johan announced his retirement as the group administrator before he anointed a successor. He subsequently left the group before he was added back by the new administrator.
Johan did not give reasons for his abrupt decision to no longer coordinate the group. One can only speculate in that regard. But one thing is clear, there is widespread panic and confusion among the Afrikaner community in the agricultural sector.
I do not believe that Johan was acting out of malice when he shared the article, but rather that he had done so without fact checking. It is possible that he merely forwarded an article that had been forwarded to him by others, within the broader community.
Such is the power of disinformation, which is intended to induce fear and create panic in society. The article by the “news organisation” was based on a disputed list that turned out to not be true.
You may be wondering, dear reader, how I happen to know so much about the contents of a fringe WhatsApp group of some rural community in the Eastern Cape.
Well I can assure you that I am no spy, and neither do I possess the technical skills to crack Meta’s WhatsApp’s much-vaunted end-to-end encryption. I am a member of the group by virtue of a bold decision I took in 2017 to buy a 46ha farm outside East London. This was during the period when I was the editor in chief of the the Daily Dispatch in that beautiful coastal city that I call home.
Strangely, the fears that prevailed when I first arrived at the valley remain — whites who feel that they are under siege and are soon to be replaced by pro-government black farmers.
This is fertile ground for scaremongering and alarmist organisations that benefit from white fears.
AfriForum
It is not surprising that the fake 2018 list was distributed by AfriForum, an organisation that finds itself at the centre of the current diplomatic storm between the White House and the Union Buildings. US President Donald Trump has accused the South African government of doing “very bad things” that include the untrue claim that white farmers are being dispossessed of their land, and that the government is carrying out the wanton expropriation of white farms a la Zimbabwe.
I will not waste any more ink on the issue as it has been well aired and the claims disproved.
The subsequent drastic executive order, signed by Trump, that offered to “promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees” in the United States has been a source of great debate.
Adding fuel to the fire is South Africa-born tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has jumped on the bandwagon and has been leading a disinformation campaign against South Africa.
One of Musk’s “retweets” on his X platform was a flawed graph that purported to show the migration of black Africans to South Africa, and compared it to the arrivals of whites. This was intended to project whites as being engulfed by the flood of African migrants while their population numbers remained low and under threat. Perhaps it will be used to justify the reason why they deserve refugee status in the United States. However, those who have lived in the country long enough know that South Africa has a migration problem where the economic migrants from neighbouring countries are competing with poor black South Africans for already-scarce resources and jobs.
Inequality is a reality in this country. Not just among the poor but also among the farming community. The Valley’s WhatsApp group is a microcosm of South Africa — the permanent tension between poor blacks and privileged whites. Then there is a layer of struggling black farmers (read middle class) who find themselves in the middle — swinging in either direction depending on the topic or issue at hand.
Opportunistic elements
While the focus over the next weeks and months will be on white farmers and some opportunistic elements who will take their one-way tickets to the US while crying wolf, what is likely to be lost in the debate is the need to transform the agricultural sector.
Already black farmers are viewed not only with suspicion — perceived to be lackeys of the ANC government — but also they are not taken seriously in some quarters.
All but two of the black farmers in my area bought their own farms and are not beneficiaries of the government’s land reform programme. I do not claim to speak for black farmers, but I do know quite a lot of them who, like me, have funded their farms and continue to self-fund their operations from their own pockets — with little or no support from the government.
Like their white counterparts they are unhappy with the government, albeit for different reasons.
The reason they remain “emerging farmers” is the failure of the government to support not only those who seek to acquire land, but also those who are already operating.
Like me they have grown tired of completing countless application forms for “livestock-improvement” and “mechanisation” programmes that come to naught.
But it is universally accepted that if anyone waits on the government then they will never achieve anything.
At my farm we still use the same 1971 model Massey Ferguson 178 tractor that I bought for R80,000 in 2018. Fortunately it is still running strong. Over the years I have spared no cost in buying the essential implements, and recently invested in drip irrigation — spending more money while saving thousands of liters of water by avoiding the wasteful dragline (sprinkler) system.
Stringent conditions
Had I not been privately employed and thus subsidising the farm, I would have long failed and given up. Even the funding by the so-called development finance institutions is not easy to access. If anything, they impose stringent conditions that are even worse than those prescribed by commercial banks. I know this from my personal experience. The qualifying criteria is no different from that of commercial banks — meaning that not only do black farmers not have access to land, but those who do have no access to finance either.
What is clear, though, is that black farmers are not thriving. They remain at the bottom of the chain, with unclear prospects of success. The communal farmers in the village would greatly benefit from a few state-owned farms in the area that are currently unoccupied and overgrown with tall grass and thick bush. This would be a quick win for the government, and would also reduce tensions where livestock from the villages do not wander into private properties in search of grazing.
That way the Valley’s WhatsApp group will be a much more peaceful platform. DM
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