Premier must look into NC farm leases by Patricia De Lille

17 September 2020

Emerging details of the alleged irregular awarding of two Northern Cape farms by Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Patricia De Lille, have raised serious concerns regarding the abuse of state farmland in the province by connected individuals.

This has prompted the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape to call on the premier, Dr Zamani Saul, to institute his own investigation into this matter. This is important because deserving emerging farmers from the province may have been sidelined if allegations that Namaqualand farms were apparently not put out on tender nor subjected to supply-chain process, are indeed true.

According to allegations made in a recent media report, De Lille ordered that two applications from entities in the Namakwa region of the Northern Cape be escalated to her office for approval, jumping several steps in the process, including the approval of the accounting officer. The media report further exposes one of the alleged beneficiaries as being a former director in the Northern Cape department of agriculture. He is apparently one of five directors of a company that was approved to lease a 1 000 hectare portion of Farm Abbasas, at R1 600 a month for 25 years. The second deal apparently saw 1 000 hectares of Farm Kabis leased for 25 years at R1 500 a month. Both leases were apparently signed in December last year by people with the same surname.

The DA is very concerned by the above accusations.

Such leases are meant to form part of government’s programme to provide state-owned land, at favourable rates, to deserving beneficiaries as part of boosting black participation in farming. It would therefore be very unfair and irregular for government officials and connected individuals to be parachuted in by a national minister, to claim a stake in prime Northern Cape land.

The DA will submit a written request for an urgent investigation into the matter by Saul. If the ANC government really cares about emerging farmers, it will pursue this matter to ensure that not only farm leases, but also title deeds for the state-owned farms, are awarded to emerging farmers and not to those who have ties to people in powerful positions.

Failure by the ANC government to address this matter seriously will expose the government’s ploy to expropriate land without compensation, as a mere strategy to facilitate land theft by the ruling party itself.

Issued by Andrew Louw, DA Northern Cape Provincial Leader, 17 September 2020