As part of land redistribution endeavours the Eastern Cape agriculture and land affairs department has acquired three citrus farms in the Sundays River Valley to empower about 45 farm workers.
The department paid about R33-million for the farms through its Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy.
The acquisitions include the Watson, Hewitt and Van Breda citrus farms. Watson consists of about 40 hectares of citrus land, with about 40 000 citrus trees. It produces 1 500 tons of citrus annually. A big chunk is for export.
Hewitt consists of about 110 hectares of citrus land. It has 60 000 trees and produces 3 800 tons of citrus annually, of which 200 000 cartons are exports.
Van Breda consists of about 80 hectares, which produces about 140 000 cartons for the export market. It has 50 000 trees.
The farms were unveiled at the weekend on a media tour, also attended by Land Affairs and Agriculture Deputy Minister Dirk du Toit.
Although the workers are the direct beneficiaries, they haven‘t taken receipt of the farms yet as they still have to go for intensive training, including farm administration management.
The farms are registered under the land affairs department but are run and managed by the Sundays River Citrus Company (SRCC). The SRCC is owned by commercial citrus farmers in the Sundays River Valley. SRCC is the biggest packer of South African citrus. It packs and distributes the citrus to overseas markets via Capespan, the largest exporter of South African citrus. The SRCC is the single largest shareholder in Capespan.
Project director Mxolisi Ngangani said: “Ultimately the intention is to have the farms transferred to the black farmers . . . In the training we will be able to identify those with management capacity, and we will upgrade their status to become farmers. The rest will be shareholders and beneficiaries.” He said the farms should be transferred within three to five years.
Buyiswa Ndyenga, a beneficiary at Hewitt, said: “ I am very happy. Our kids will now prosper and achieve what we didn‘t.”
Elvis Mkhalakahlo who has been working at Watson for the past 14 years said: “I never knew this would happen in my life time. We are very thankful.”
Du Toit said this was a practical example of what happened when all parties willingly sped up land distribution.