Callais 226KT in the Hoedspruit district, the second farm in South Africa to be expropriated for land restitution, was officially acquired by the state on 24 January 2008, and handed over to Strategic Farm Management (SFM) the same day. SFM is a privately owned company that will act as a temporary curator until the end of August this year, when the beneficiary communities of Letebele, Mpuru and Maraba take over production on the citrus farm.
CEO of SFM Mike Scott said the company will oversee the entire management of the farm. “We will take 50% of the profits from this year’s harvest as payment for running the farm until the community takes over,” said. The property is divided into three separately owned portions, which are all under the same claim, and questions have been raised regarding the method used to acquire the land. Callais 226KT had been under claim since 2000 with the owners willing to sell. The claim was finally processed in 2005, and due to undervaluation and bureaucratic red tape the farm was liquidated in 2007. Though the property was valued by an independent valuator at R19 million, the state expropriated it from the liquidators, Sechaba Trust, for R13,36 million.
“This may be a strategy for the [Land Claims] Commission to make sure these farms are liquidated and later expropriated,” said chairperson of Agri Limpopo Theo de Jager. Scott, however, disagreed with this, saying farmers and claimant communities need to work together to speed up the process. Community chairperson Ntau Letebele said none of the workers who served under the previous management will lose their jobs, and that the community was currently undergoing formal and on-the-job training to increase their skills and capacity.
“We realise that this is a long-term investment and we still need to learn the ropes,” said Letebele. “But we have Mabedi (Maruleng and Bushbuckridge Economic Development Initiative), an initiative of the Business Trust, that will assist in capacity development.” – David Steynberg
