From Brandwag to Luthando – An OPEN BOOK MyZA

Kirkwood – On 4 October 2013 the Luthando Farm (Pty) Ltd celebrated it’s 10th year in existence. Visionary farmer, Hermanus Potgieter sold 75% of his farm, Brandwag to all 70 of his permanent employees on 4 October 2003. The Department of Rural Development and and Reform provided 50% of the finance with the Land Bank providing the remainder.

Potgieter retained 25% and farm manager, Clive Duckworth, stayed on to assist with skills transfer. In 2008, Potgieter sold his 25% to the Sundays River Citrus Company (SRCC) who entered into a management agreement with Luthando which sees the SRCC involved with daily management such as human resources, production and technical assistance.

General Manager and shareholder in Luthando, Nokwanele Mzamo says that the 78.29 hectare farm with a yield of 210 000 cartons per annum is consistently one of SRCC’s Top 5 producers. Of the original 70 shareholders 59 remain with 15 working permanently on the farm alongside 200 or so seasonal workers.

One got the sense from the eight speakers at the celebration on Friday that, despite the misgivings from a number of people about the size of the shareholding group taking over the farm, the process had been well planned and implemented with good communication from owner to owners along with impressive mentoring. As former owner, Potgieter remarked; “You (the Luthando shareholders) have successfully passed the 10 year mark of ownership and, at the end of the next 20 years, you will be able to proudly say that you are farmers.”

I picked up two lessons from two of speakers:

Phillip du Plessis who highlighted (in Afrikaans) his BOOK principle:

B – Bemagtiging (Empowerment). Phillip says that empowerment is for everyone and, by implication, people should stop applying the word to only empowering in a BEE sense.
O – Ondersteuning (Support). Any project needs support.
O – Opleiding (Training). Ongoing training is vital.
K – Kontrolle (Controls). Without control no-one will be successful.

Regional Director of the Port Elizabeth Regional Department of Rural Development and and Reform, Faith Mbewana, expounded on her OPEN Principle – 4 pillars of good business:

O – Openess. In running your business be open with colleagues, stakeholders and employee.
P – Partnerships. Form successful partnerships with strategic stakeholders and suppliers.
E – Empowerment. Empower your employees to be assets in your business.
N – Networking. In business you have to network to be successful and you must network with successful people

Luthando General Manager and shareholder, Nokwanele Mzamo closed the day in fine fashion when she thanked and praised all who had gone before her in order to make the realisation of the successful transfer of the farm to the former employees of Hermanus Potgieter.

In my eyes the panel of speakers were neatly book ended by the visionary farmer – Hermanus Potgieter – who despite the naysayers developed a successful model for transformation and the new General Manager – Nokwanele Mzamo – who accepted the challenge of that vision and was humble, thankful, determined and also a visionary up to the task of the next 20 years so that she too could proudly state that she was a farmer.

The main speakers of the day: