For 16 years, a group of Gauteng farmers have not had title deeds to the farms they occupy. These disgruntled farmers have now lodged a complaint at the Public Protector’s Gauteng office.
Thabo Mokone, a farmer on the 58ha Plot 19, Luipaardsvlei on the West Rand of Johannesburg, said that since 2001, he has been fighting a battle with Gauteng’s then Department of Public Transport, Roads and Works for a title deed. After the 2009 elections, the department split into the Department of Infrastructure Development and the Department of Roads and Transport.
Mokone and 253 other farmers have occupied the farms since 1994 under a month-to-month lease from the then Transvaal Provincial Administration. Between 1998 and 1999 they signed individual three-year lease agreements under the Gauteng Small Farmer Support Programme (GSFSP), with the option to buy the properties at the end of the lease period.
These 254 farmers formed the Mahata Mmoho Farmers’ Co-operative after being granted the three year leases.
According to Mokone, both the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) and the then Department of Public Transport, Roads and Works have promised since 2006 to hand over the title deeds, but have gone back on their word for reasons unknown to him.
Farmer’s Weekly has seen letters between Khabisi Mosunkutu, the former MEC for agriculture and rural development, and Ignatius Jacobs, former MEC for public transport, roads and works, where plans were drawn up to transfer the title deeds to 138 of the original 254 farmers in 2006.
Jacobs wrote to Mosunkutu in a letter dated 5 October 2006: “In terms of your recommendations that 138 farmers purchase their farms and that the title deeds be handed over to them, I will instruct my officials to ensure that the process of handing over the title deeds be implemented immediately.”
In another letter to his head of department, at that time Sibusiso Buthelezi, Jacobs instructed him to implement the transfer of 138 title deeds immediately and to extend the lease contracts of six farmers. Jacobs then asked Buthelezi to replace 106 farmers whose lease contracts had been terminated, without giving reasons for the termination. Another four farmers are unaccounted for.
The current GDARD said it is aware that the title deeds have not been issued to any of the original 254 beneficiaries. But Andile Gumede, GDARD spokesperson, recently said the responsibility of issuing the title deeds lies with the Gauteng Department of Local Government and Housing, which holds the power of attorney for the province’s land. He said that since the Department of Public Transport, Roads and Works split in two, the Department of Infrastructure Development cannot locate proof of payment for rentals on lease contracts.
To speed up the process of issuing the title deeds, the GDARD has kept in constant communication with the office of the premier, the Department of Infrastructure Development, the Gauteng Department of Local Government and Housing and the national Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.
“I believe the matter is now with the Public Protector and we will await the decision thereof,” Gumede said. – Peter Mashala
