Minister Thoko Didiza should honour ‘lease to buy’ agreements entered into with farmers 

22 April 2021

In yet another example of how the government’s chaotic land reform programme has short-changed farmers since 1994, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) has reneged on the ‘lease-to-buy’ agreements that it entered into with 6 farmers.

The DA will write to Minister Thoko Didiza to request that her office directly intervenes and resolves this injustice against farmers who have been thrown from pillar to post by administratively inept officials.

The affected farmers include:

Mr NJ Matsheni, Rus de Winter 180 JR – offer to purchase

Mr MP Seku, Rus de Winter 180 JR – offer to purchase

Mr Ramokoko Lekgate, Tambotielaagte NW - offer to purchase

Mr Opperman -  Hammanskraal - offer to purchase

Mr JM Kutu, Radium Limpopo - offer to purchase

Mr CR Msiza - offer to purchase 

The affected farmers obtained their farmland under the government’s Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD) programme. Under LRAD, the government undertook to transfer land to previously disadvantaged citizens under lease to buy agreements. It is the same programme in which Mr David Rakgase had to go to court to force the government to sell him his farm, after the latter appeared to renege on the initial agreement.

However, not all farmers will be so lucky as Mr Rakgase to see their farms transferred to them before they die. Mr J.M Kutu’s father, who was the original party to the lease to buy agreement, passed on before he could realise his dream of owning his farm. The Department has simply failed to fulfil its side of the agreement despite the commitment made in 2005.

While the DA welcomes the moratorium that Didiza placed on farms evictions across the country, we call on her to honor the contractual agreements that her Department entered into under the LRAD programme.

Issued by Annette Steyn, DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, 22 April 2021