16 June 2023
by Lloyd Phillips
The Black Agricultural Commodities Federation says resolving significant disparities in land ownership and water allocations will have far-reaching positive consequences for historically disadvantaged citizens.
In a strongly worded statement, the Black Agricultural Commodities Federation (BACF) has expressed its support for the Department of Water and Sanitation’s proposed regulations to compel more equitable agricultural water allocations.
The BACF comprises seven organisations representing black citizens involved in the production of grains, fruit, red meat, sugar cane, poultry and game. Its statement says that if land dispossessions during apartheid were the “original sin” in South African society, then black farmers’ “iniquitous sparce access to water is a cardinal evil”.
The statement, signed by BACF CEO Dr Moshe Swart, chairperson Lindiwe Hlubi and deputy chairperson Mike Gcabo, says water minister Senzo Mchunu’s plan to require compulsory black shareholding of between 25% and 75% in entities applying for water use licences and water allocations is a “courageous move” and “an act of valour”.
“The facts in their gory reality are there for all to see. A total national allocation of water of just above 400 million cubic metres (m3) is inequitably shared between blacks and whites. The iniquity resides in the fact that the indigenous South African producers and all the other historically disadvantaged groups collectively pick up the crumbs of 7,5%, or a mere 30 million m3 [of this]. This almost perfectly mirrors the iniquity that forges on in the land [and agricultural] arena,” the BACF leaders say.
The statement says scant access to water, land and funding from finance institutions such as commercial banks, ever-increasing production input costs and monopolised access to markets are the “most unholy pillars of black farmer oppression and under-development”.
The BACF adds that it is unhappy that white farmers who own less than 100 hectares are unlikely to be affected by Mchunu’s proposals.
“A small example [is that] in the Western Cape, research conducted on grape-producing farms in the districts of Robertson, Worcester and De Doorns shows the mean size of farms ranges from 60 ha in De Doorns to 87 ha in Robertson and 101 ha in Robertson. Just in this one commodity, therefore, many white producers will go on with their lives unbothered,” says the statement.
The BACF’s leaders say the solution to multi-generational poverty among black South Africans is “not complicated”. It requires that every household that has ever had to buy land, especially for settling and building family, must be compensated for it. The value and extent of this compensation can be negotiated.
The BACF’s second solution is that every black farmer who has ever had to buy land must be compensated for it and be given access to land development support.
Funding for these solutions can, according to the BACF’s leaders, be provided from the “just and reparatory” tax that should be paid by every owner of land beyond a certain size. This will achieve peace in South African society.
“There are shameless ‘land barons’ in our country. Some have clung, generation after generation, to close to 50 000 ha while the majority wallows in abject poverty. We believe that land is a foundational platform for multi-generational wealth [for black households and their communities],” the statement says.
