A R3.1bn agricultural programme designed to develop 300,000 small-scale farmers and create 145,000 agro-processing jobs has seemingly ground to a halt with infrastructure broken, stolen or vandalised and the government accused of mismanagement.
With promises of farming and agricultural business skills development, access to markets and the provision of seeds and equipment, thousands of emerging farmers were targeted in 2015 in a government scheme to revitalise SA's crumbling rural economy.
The programme saw the development of 44 "agri-parks" across SA, consisting of farmer production-support units linked to agricultural-industrial hubs.
In April 2017, former president Jacob Zuma, at an inspection of Johannesburg's Westonaria Agri-Park, one of the programme's then flagships, said the government aimed to "bring 300,000 new smallholder farmers into the agricultural sector and create 145,000 new agro-processing jobs.
"Having visited this agri-park I am convinced we are on the right track. I am pleased the question of market access is being addressed, because many smallholder farmers fail due to their inability to gain access to markets," Zuma said.
When Business Times visited Westonaria Agri-Park this week it was in a state of disrepair. Storage sheds have collapsed, borehole pumps are broken and a specialised vertical hydroponic tunnel is dilapidated.
Several of the agri-park's farmers said the government had largely failed them.
What the government has spent on the agriparks project, according
to 2019 data
— R1bn
Pablo Khoza, who farms vegetables under shade netting at the site, said: "Government was meant to link to me fresh produce markets here, but has not. I sell my vegetables at the mining hostel in the nearby Libanontownship. I sell my vegetables for R10 a bag. I barely make ends meet every month."
Khoza said that while he received five hectares of land to farm for free, and did not pay for water or electricity, the government had reneged on its promises of support.
"There are no mentors. Seedlings are delivered late, which means we miss planting and harvesting times. In a season I should have three harvests - I am lucky if I get one.
"My co-op used to have five people. I am the only one left. The others left because of the broken promises. We have a major water crisis, with broken borehole pumps."
Another farmer, who asked not to be named, said he was struggling. "We complain about a lack of water, but nothing is done. We needed additional tunnels but it's taken months to get them. They build structures but there is no shade cloth. Only recently some shade cloth was put up."
But the head of the Boo Letsholo Co-op, Judge Letsholo, who also farms at Westonaria Agri-Park, said he had no issues: "I don't know what people are complaining about."
Responses by the department of agriculture, land reform & rural development to parliamentary questions in 2019 show the agri-parks programme budget was R3.1bn, with R1bn spent on the project.
Agri SA says this is the programme's most up-to-date publicly available financial figures. The biggest portion of the budget was spent in the Eastern Cape [R166m], KwaZulu-Natal [R160m] and North West province [R157m].
Reggie Ngcobo, spokesperson for the department of agriculture, land reform & rural development, failed to answer queries.
Farming associations have slammed the government for the programme's collapse.
Jabulani Mthembu, acting chair of the African Farmers' Association of SA, said: "We are no better off now than we were before this dream was launched. All we have gained is an interesting vocabulary of acronyms.
"Farmers believed they would transition into bigger enterprises. We were told we would contribute to SA's food security, but we can barely look after our own food security. This project has been driven by officials who know nothing about getting their hands dirty."
Raadia Khan, national deputy chair of the Black Farmers' Association of SA, said they were never asked for their input. "If we were, we could have told government exactly what was needed to make this a success.
"Government put billions of rands into this programme, yet virtually none has come down to the ground where it is needed. There are delays in receiving seeds for planting, with no access to markets."
Khan said poor management had led to implementation problems, with very little monitoring of the programme's impact.
Agri SA executive chair Christo van der Rheede said the programme was to boost SA's food security.
"It was meant to activate industrial hubs for large-scale commercial food production, but the programme is collapsing."
Van der Rheede said that from the responses to questions in parliament in 2019 on the agri-parks' status, "you can see there is virtually no output. One cannot image how the money has been spent. It's a sham."
He said the Westonaria Agri-Park was collapsing. "Other than a few tunnels, nothing else is working. Sophisticated hydroponic systems are broken, with buildings collapsing. The situation is replicated at virtually all the other agri-parks."
Nozipho Hlabangana, Gauteng department of agriculture & rural development spokesperson, dismissed claims of failure, saying 194 permanent and 110 temporary jobs had been created from the province's eight agri-parks, "which cost R87m to develop. Over 1,340 farmers have benefited, with 32 farming enterprises linked to markets."
Hlabangana said that though the department was responsible for the agri-parks and assisted in procuring materials for repairs, "the agri-enterprises are expected to conduct preventative maintenance on production facilities they use".
She said only one agri-park was not functioning, due to theft and vandalism, and repairs were under way.
"The other agri-parks are operating at 50% to 75% capacity. Westonaria production infrastructure is 50% operational.
"The vertical hydroponic tunnel is not operating due to pump breakdown. Repairs are being undertaken. The administrative facilities and 20 hydroponic and shade-net tunnels are fully functional. The incomplete warehouse and additional hydroponic tunnels are due to the contractor failing to deliver, with the contract terminated."
Hlabangana said challenges included theft, vandalism, poor market uptake, commitment issues from the growers, inadequate technical engineers and technicians, and water and electricity interruptions.
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