Victory against Government for embattled Limpopo farmer after 18-year struggle
26 May 2020
Note to Editors: Kindly find attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans by DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Annette Steyn.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is delighted that David Rakgase finally owns his Nooitgedacht farm in Limpopo, after an 18-year battle with Government to honour an agreement made in 2002.
The DA met Mr Rakgase about six years ago and sought to find a way to help him acquire what was rightfully his by financing the legal means to take his case to court.
Mr Rakgase signed a 30-year lease for his farm in 1991 and had been so successful that his cattle farm was used to train emerging black farmers.
He was offered the option to buy the land in 2002 under the now defunct Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD) programme.
Since then it has been tug-of-war with the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development. But justice has prevailed and after the High Court ruled in favour of Mr Rakgase in September 2019, the sales agreement has finally been signed for the original 2002 offer of R621 000.
The only thing left to do for Mr Rakgase to finally own his land is for the deed to be transferred in his name. We hope that the Department will not drag its heels in this regard as well.
Insofar as there are other farmers with similar stories to David Rakgase, the DA will not hesitate to assist these farmers.
The ANC Government continues to falsely promote expropriation of land without compensation as a means to empower emerging farmers. This will aggravate, not resolve the problems of its failed land reform process. The real barriers to land reform include a totally incapable department, rampant corruption, deviousness and a Marxist antipathy to property ownership for individuals. Mr Rakgase’s case illustrates this clearly - and it is only one example of the barriers preventing a whole category of emerging black farmers from owning the land they are farming.
If the ANC government were serious about land reform and empowerment, this was a simple case to resolve, and empower a successful farmer. But, instead of fully supporting Mr Rakgase and honouring the sales agreement, the Department did everything in its power to make sure that the land in question was not sold to Mr Rakgase at the price agreed. Instead the Department did everything possible to block the transaction.
This again demonstrates that the ANC does not wish to partner with farmers – black or white – to correct and compensate for the wrongs of the past. Instead, the ANC wants to abuse its control of the state to own all land in South Africa, and simply make farmers tenants on the land they work, unable to use the land as collateral and beholden to the whims of ANC authoritarianism.
Issued by Annette Steyn, DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, 26 May 2020
