By Kopano Dibakwane
Deputy president of South Africa, Paul Mashatile, conducted an oversight visit in Nkomazi, under the Ehlanzeni district municipality, in his capacity as chairperson of the IMC(inter-ministerial committee) on land reform and agriculture.
Mashatile’s programme for the day started with a briefing by Mpumalanga provincial government, followed by a visit to Laughing Waterfall farming project and engagement with farmers who are farming on state-lease farms and communal areas, including Tomahawk farm and Nala farm.
The visit reportedly provided a platform to identify key enablers to improve the performance of the government’s service delivery agenda.
Mashatile received a progress report on government’s coordinated response in fast tracking land reform and agricultural support in Ehlanzeni district.
According to Mpumalanga premier, Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane, the role of the IMC is to oversee the implementation of government’s land reform programme and interventions, aimed at creating jobs, economic growth and investment facilitation in the province and the country in general.
The premier said that the Matsamo CPA(communal property association), outside of Malelane, was amongst the farms led by land claimants who were handed over land. She said that the land restitution programme has 5000 hectares of land that produces bananas for commercial farming. In addition, Mtshweni-Tsipane mentioned that 16000 beneficiaries are registered as members of the CPA’s, which is an indication that agriculture is the backbone of Mpumalanga.
” We have households which are direct beneficiaries as a result of this programme. All this wouldn’t have been done if it wasn’t for the ANC(African National Congress) led government. We remain committed, resolute and steadfast in transforming the lives of our people and the livelihoods within the communities.
” We have just started, we are saying the road ahead is still long and we’ll traverse this road working together with the communities of Mpumalanga in making sure that we work harder and develop new ideas that will take us further,” said Mtshweni-Tsipane.
Mashatile said that government will continue to support farming programmes with grants to buy resources such as tractors, also provide skills through the human resource development council. He added that sometimes the land redistribution programme can be slow and people tend not to use the land they acquire productively.
” The farms are very large and produce a lot of products. We want to see what they are doing, learn from the experience and replicate this throughout the country. This is an example of what should be done.
” Our people must benefit from the land. As government we are in full support of these programmes. This is the beginning of many visits we are going to do here in Mpumalanga and different parts of the country,” said Mashatile.
The deputy president was accompanied by other senior government officials including, minister of public works-Sihle Zikalala, Mpumalanga premier-Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane, Mpumalanga MEC for agriculture, rural development, land and environmental affairs(DARDLEA)-Busisiwe Shiba, executive mayor of Ehlanzeni district Municipality, Jesta Sidell, executive mayor of Nkomazi local Municipality,Phindile Magagula, deputy minister of agriculture, land reform and rural development-Mcebisi Skwatsha, amongst others.
