Parent body calls for feuding sugar industry players to ‘join hands’

By Lloyd Phillips

South Africa’s financially challenged primary sugarcane industry needs to work together even more closely if it is to realise its goal of sustainably reviving its fortunes.

This is the view of the South African Sugar Association (Sasa) in response to the dispute that has erupted between the South African Farmers Development Association (Safda) and the South African Canegrowers Association (SA Canegrowers).

The feuding entities represent the interests of the country’s approximately 22 000 sugarcane farmers. However, Safda counts primarily smaller-scale black growers as its core members while SA Canegrowers represents members of any scale or race.

On Monday, Safda representatives and members held peaceful protests outside SA Canegrowers district offices in the sugarcane-growing areas of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga. According to a statement by Safda, this was in response to SA Canegrowers allegedly trying to block the allocation of funding for transformation within the primary sugarcane value chain.

In a voice recording made by Safda’s executive chairperson, Dr Siyabonga Madlala, and released to African Farming, he accused SA Canegrowers of being “racist” in its stance on how financial support to black sugarcane growers should be allocated.

“[SA Canegrowers] is trying to take away [black sugarcane growers’] bread and butter, [namely] the immediate transformation interventions that were pledged … as a remedy to assist [with addressing] the inequality in the sugar industry,” Madlala said.

“[The pledge made] was that until such time that a better dispensation for black sugarcane growers is implemented, they will be receiving top-up payments to negate the negative [payment] statements that they get after cutting [and delivering] their cane.

Injustice against black growers

“It is a fight for justice. It is a just cause. How do you take from the poor blacks? How do you take from those who farm the land for the whole year but get zero/zero statements? How do you take the little that they get?”

Speaking to African Farming, Safda’s chief operating officer, Thandokwakhe Sibiya, says SA Canegrowers is allegedly trying to have most of the approximately R230 million in transformation funding allocated for the 2024/25 sugarcane milling season “kept aside for some future blue-sky-thinking project that nobody knows what it will be”.

He adds: “It looks like SA Canegrowers would be willing to take this money to something else that they don’t even know themselves, instead of giving it to the [smaller-scale black] farmers that have got a need right now to support their operations.

“People know that [these farmers] will never be sustainable on their own. You can’t farm five hectares and expect to be profitable. We know in the industry that the norm is about 300 ha of sugarcane for a farmer to be self-sustainable.”

In its response, SA Canegrowers says it “strongly rejects” the “several serious allegations” made against it by Safda. It says it believes in an inclusive sugar industry, has been a leading advocate of transformation, and recognises that the success of small-scale sugarcane growers “is critical to ensure the future of the sugar industry … and to stabilise rural economies”.

SA Canegrowers explains that funding for transformation in the industry comes from various sources. For the 2024/25 sugarcane milling season, it amounts to R239 million.

“Under the stewardship of Sasa, proposed transformation interventions for 2024/25 are being reviewed following independent studies that show transformation projects should be region-specific, measurable, relevant and impactful. SA Canegrowers will continue to work on behalf of all sugarcane growers in South Africa and ensure that transformation funds are spent in an accountable and transparent manner,” its statement says.

Funding must not be intercepted

“We will also continue to stand for what is right, which is to ensure that funds reach the intended beneficiaries and are not intercepted. It is imperative that transformation is implemented in a sustainable and enduring manner across the various sugarcane-growing regions, and we will continue to advocate for this.”

Sasa says “the transformation funding disagreement between members” is being dealt with urgently.

It adds that over the past five years, Sasa has disbursed R1,12 billion on transformation interventions, especially for the benefit of small-scale black sugarcane growers. This sum included annual multi-million rand premium price payments (PPPs) to small-scale growers to provide them with additional income beyond what they were paid by sugarcane mills.

“The 2023/24 season was the last year of the PPP. However, on 20 March 2024, the Sasa council approved the extension of the PPP to 2024/25, with an inflationary adjustment, meaning the allocation for this season is R72 527 776,” Sasa’s statement says.

Sasa’s independent chairperson, Fay Mukaddam, says the association continues to drive the Reimagined Cane Industry Strategy, which makes diversification and transformation key pillars of the primary sugarcane value chain’s sustainability.

Mukaddam says: “I would like to call on all sugar industry leaders to join hands and work towards a common future. We must put aside our differences and prioritise the interests of the industry, especially those of all our sugarcane growers.”