Update: Council speaks out over Spaarwater Farm
"It was discovered that these farms were used to conceal criminal acts,” said Mr Gadebe.
Spaarwater Farm is under the oversight of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality’s (EMM) Department of Economic Development (DED).
“The farm involves community cooperatives which were provided with infrastructure to breed pigs and chickens that could be sold in order to earn an income at no cost to these cooperatives,” said the spokesperson for the EMM, Mr Temba Gadeba.
He added that community cooperatives were initially supported by the Danish Embassy and the Department of Trade and Industry through a Cooperative Incentive Scheme.
“In this regard, the community cooperatives were responsible for the management and maintenance of the farm’s property under the mentorship of Illima Agric Services,” said Mr Gadebe.
He added that due to poor management and complaints from the community cooperatives relating to unaccounted funds, the DED gave notice to the then service provider of its intention to cut relations.
“The department subsequently replaced the mentor with two officials in order to continue its support of these cooperatives. It was discovered that these farms were used to conceal criminal acts,” said Mr Gadebe.
After the farms’ 25kva transformer was hit by lightening last year, the electricity supply became irregular due to the theft of electric cables and other related equipment and implements.
“Due to the erratic supply of electricity, water supply to the affected farm animals also became erratic. The EMM commissioned the services of a veterinary practitioner to conduct an investigation of the farm and to make recommendations on what should be done to improve the conditions of the farm animals,” said Mr Gadebe.
He added that officials who were responsible for the management and upkeep of the farm concealed the existence of the problems at the farm and did not implement the recommendations of the veterinary practitioner from January to May and therefore the situation deteriorated further.
In May, the matter relating to the farm animals was brought to the attention of the DED head of department by a veterinary practitioner, after having found no joy from the responsible officials.
“At that point, water tanks and feed was dispatched to the farm on a regular basis to avert further deterioration and a team of officials were assigned to monitor and oversee developments at the farm while a permanent solution was sort.
“Unfortunately, the condition of some of the farm animals had deteriorated to an extent that they had to be put down to avoid the spread of disease and to spare them from experiencing further suffering,” said Mr Gadebe.
The EMM has advertised a position of an official to manage the farm on a daily basis and a process is underway to formalise strategic partnerships with private sector specialists to assist in the operation of the farm as a training facility for emerging commercial farmers.
Mr Gadebe added that the EMM has allocated R6-million to provide the required infrastructure, including the restoration of electricity to guarantee regular supply of water and feed to the animals.
“The EMM has also reviewed its institutional arrangement relating to community cooperatives being responsible for running the farm in favour of a more involved institutional arrangement which involves the appointment of experienced farm management teams to provide the day-to-day management and mentorship of the community cooperatives,” he said.
“The EMM has also commissioned an investigation to establish circumstances that related in this unfortunate state of affairs wherein the responsible management have been served with disciplinary charges,” said Mr Gadebe.
