Ten years ago Hennie Fouché bought the farm Rietvallei outside Mookgopong in the Limpopo province. Besides being fenced off, the 215ha farm was undeveloped. Fouché now produces about 200t of cocktail tomatoes and 100t of sweet peppers in a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled, 25 000m2 greenhouse. But this years erratic electricity supply wrought havoc on his production.
Fouché’s woes started in November last year when the municipal electricity supply was interrupted on an old, main power line that had not been maintained in the 10 years he has been in the area. With other members of the community, Fouché put pressure on the Mookgopong municipality to repair the line. Their efforts paid off and the power line was repaired, but their relief was short-lived. Eskom’s load-shedding peaked in January this year, severely impacting Fouché’s operations.
“Our production for the last three months was only 40% of what it was for that period in previous years,” said Fouché. He explained that a temperature of about 28ºC is usually maintained inside the greenhouse. The temperature is computer-regulated using techniques such as wet walls on one side of the greenhouse and extractor fans on the other. In the warm, bushveld climate temperatures can reach up to 55ºin 15 minutes if there’s no electricity to power the fans. “The entire system comes to a stand-still,” Fouché lamented. “And once the temperature shoots into the fifties, it’s virtually impossible to get it back down, even when the power comes back on.”
Like many farmers in South Africa, Fouché has now resorted to purchasing a back-up generator. “At a time when my production and income was at only 40%, I had to fork out R200 000 to sustain my business,” he said. On top of that there’s the running cost of about R280/hour for diesel. During a three-hour power cut Fouché spends almost a farmworker’s monthly wage just generating power. He already employs 45 sole breadwinners on the farm. “I would much rather have government helping me grow to the extent that could employ more people, than force me out of production with their poor infrastructure and irregular electricity supply,” he argued.
Like many other farmers, Fouché is concerned about imminent prescribed increases in the minimum-wage structure and the looming implementation of land tax. He has written a letter to the Mookgopong municipal manager to ask for relief on his electricity bill, for the losses he incurred due to the damaged power line. “She didn’t even bother to reply,” he reported. – Jasper Raats
