In a media statement, AfriForum says the farmer’s mentor offered him the land when he couldn’t secure a commercial bank loan to buy more land.
However, the department says the conditions of the farmer’s water use licence prohibit the transfer of water rights from a previously disadvantaged person to a non-previously disadvantaged person. According to the department, this would conflict with the transformation objectives set out in the National Water Act of 1998.
AfriForum argues that the department’s failure to transfer existing water rights between farmers and/or farms is contrary to a 2023 Constitutional Court ruling that says the trading and transfer of existing water rights are permissible.
“This race-based discrimination is also contrary to several objectives of the National Water Act, such as promoting equitable access to water, correcting historical racial discrimination and promoting socioeconomic development,” says Marais de Vaal, AfriForum’s environmental affairs adviser.
“The sad irony of the department’s narrow application of transformation goals is that true transformation is actually being hampered by it. It is precisely the emerging farmer who is most disadvantaged by this decision.”
Dr Theo de Jager, chairperson of the agricultural interest network Saai, says racially obsessed state officials and corruption are the biggest reasons for the failure of land reform and farmer development programmes, and stand squarely in the way of South Africa’s efforts to establish a class of profitable black farmers.
