KwaZulu-Natal Premier Mr Senzo Mchunu has  mediated problems between farmers and farm workers in the Utrecht area.

Mchunu, Finance MEC Ina Cronje and Agriculture and Environment Affairs MEC Meshack Radebe engaged with both farmers and farm workers on Monday night and today (Tuesday) where issues of lack of portable drinking water, delayed land claims, lack of support for successful land claimants, stock theft, and overgrazing of land were some of the issues discussed.

Gerard Potgieter, who spoke on behalf of farmers in the area, said one of the most prevalent problems with land given back to communities under land restitution, is the improper use of the land, which “become a squatter camp”, resulting in farm fencing being damaged.

Radebe said government has identified a trend of problems in land restitution cases, where trusts are set up and the real beneficiaries of the land are being made to pay rent to a few individuals in the trust, who in most cases are not even the rightful beneficiaries of the land.

“We are going to seek a meeting with the national government, where this issues of trusts involved in land restitution needs to be revisited,” said Radebe.

Mchunu also officially launched a program to promote healthcare among farming communities.

Mchunu also said government, farmers, farm workers, amakhosi and municipalities need to work together in establishing agri-villages in rural areas, which will see the lives of rural people being improved.
“We need to ensure that each and every farm in the province is functional and produces food in order to meet our goals of food security. We need proper training of farmers and proper farming practices in order for farms to be productive,” said Mchunu.

He said this would include an audit of all farms that have been returned to communities under restitution and land redistribution to see how many are productive as a start to this program.

He said peace and stability is of vital importance for the success of this program.