Colleen Dardagan
MILLIONS of rand that no one can answer for; a misplaced title deed; and a litany of broken promises – this is all seven Dundee farm labourers can show for a deal concluded five years ago to give them a land stake.
Farmer Dirk Wessels sold 500ha of his cattle farm in the Dundee district to his labourers in 2006 under the willing buyer, willing seller scheme.
“The labourers lodged a claim and the government paid me out,” said Wessels.
“These families have lived here far longer than I have; it was the right thing to do.
But there is no water on the land. One of the provisions in the sale agreement was that the Land Affairs Department would lay on water to their homesteads to make farming viable. R1.5 million was set aside for this, Wessels said.
But nothing has happened despite promises from departmental official Remal Singh that the money was available and the contractors were ready to move on to the site.
Wessels said the families had yet to see a title deed confirming their ownership of the property.
Marika Muller, spokeswoman for the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), said the sale was under investigation.
“The SIU is investigating concerns around alleged irregularities in the award and administration of grants under the department’s land reform programme,” she said.
Rural Development and Land Reform Department spokesman Eddie Mohoebi said the SIU investigation had stalled development on the property. He said the delay in handing over the title deed was because the labourers had asked that the agriculture minister to do the handover.
“But you know how politicians are; they are very busy and we just haven’t had the time to set it up,” he said.
Asked for a copy of the title deed, Mohoebi referred The Mercury to the labourers, saying only they could make it available.
The Mercury understands that the SIU investigation started in April 2011 and could “definitely” not be responsible for any delays in development projects.
Jabulile Ndlovu, head of the Thandanani Trust set up by the labourers to manage the land transfer, said they had not seen any “paper”.
Tractor
She said the department had bought them a tractor and three bulls, but they had not received money for fertiliser or seed.
“They promised us heifers, electricity, water and a road. Now we are just asking for the water; we can’t farm without water,” she said.
Meanwhile, three senior officials from the department’s Ladysmith office – Promise Makhanya, S’bu Chapi and Patrick Masoka – were arrested on suspicion of corruption and land claim fraud in March this year.
Mohoebi said the three were on suspension while investigations were conducted.
Muller said investigations had revealed that the recipients of grants and land in farm deals in the area were often not the intended beneficiaries, but external entities not linked to the grant processes.
