Mmusi Maimane: farmers treated shamefully
Nooitgedacht/ Northam – Mmusi Maimane, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader, was invited to a farm in Nooitgedacht close to Northam on 9 October.
David Rakgase has been farming on this piece of land for the past 26 years, leasing it from the government since 1991. “He had never defaulted on his rental payments,” says Maimane. “However, the government now wants to transfer this land to other individuals.”
In 1999, Mr Rakgase applied and became a beneficiary of the government’s Land Redistribution for Local Development (LRAD) programme. The programme was supposedly created to benefit up-and-coming farmers by leasing government-owned land to these farmers with a view to transfer ownership to them at a later stage, when the option to buy was triggered. “It is clear that eventual ownership and transfer of the land in title was one of the main objectives of the programme,” says Rakgase.
In 2002, Mr Rakgase was asked whether he would like to exercise his option to purchase the farm as an LRAD beneficiary.
He immediately accepted and confirmed his intention to purchase – which government approved.
He then followed the entire procedure with the bank and the government, to indeed purchase the land.
Later, Mr Rakgase received a letter from the Limpopo Provincial Government confirming that he was in fact the new owner. The letter he received from the Limpopo Provincial Government, stated that “The Department of Agriculture recognises you as the new owner in terms of the Farm Settlement Policy, the LRAD Policy, and the State Land Disposal Act, 1961”.
Then, in 2004 the Department of Agriculture sent a letter to Absa bank confirming that Mr Rakgase has already purchased the farm, but that the title deed had not yet been registered in his name.
The government now says he no longer has an option to become the owner of the land, as he falls under a new government programme - the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS).
They deny that the original option to purchase was ever exercised. At 77 years old, Mr Rakgase is still not the owner of this farm.
“I am angered by this story. And I know it is all too common in South Africa. Mr Rakgase is the kind of farmer we should be empowering. That is why I have begun the legal process of restoring Mr Rakgase’s option to become the owner of his farm,” says Maimane.