A report by the National Assembly\u2019s agriculture portfolio committee, which inspected the project in 2005, found it had \u201ccompletely collapsed\u201d and cited then agriculture MEC Dawid Rooi as promising to launch a forensic investigation. He also undertook to form a new company.<\/p>\n
The agriculture committee in the Northern Cape legislature later reported that the company would be allocated R5-million \u201cto sort out the irrigation scheme\u201d.<\/p>\n
Asked whether an investigation was ever conducted and, if so, whether its report is available, the provincial agriculture ministry spokesperson, Ali Diteme, did not respond.<\/p>\n
Instead, he suggested amaBhungane lodge a request for information from Hansard under the Promotion of Access of Information Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe department has provided all the responses to the relevant committees of the legislature and we are quite satisfied as to why we have taken a bold decision to discontinue the project and write off some of the debt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Obaray said, to his knowledge, no forensic report was ever tabled in\u00a0the legislature.<\/p>\n
The scheme envisaged that 51 farmers would grow paprika on 10-hectare plots irrigated from the Orange River in a kibbutz-style operation under Arbel\u2019s management.<\/p>\n
They were to supply a R45-million factory in Springbok, majority owned by the empowerment company, Pamodzi Investment Holdings, which would develop the Goodhouse Agricultural Corporation into the second-largest supplier of paprika to the European Union.<\/p>\n
“<\/em><\/strong>If government gave land to individuals, one in a 100 would succeed”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The Land Bank and the Northern Cape government did not answer questions about their financial support for the project. But the portfolio committee report states that the farmers received government grants of R90-million, and a R57-million Land Bank production loan.<\/p>\n According to a land reform researcher, Kjersti Gjuvsland, the province invested R17-million in a 25% stake in the factory for the farmers, who would share infrastructure and profits.<\/p>\n In an interview, Arbel said the major problem was political and predated him: some farmers said the land was given to them by the British government, wanted individual title, and \u201cdid not want to be told what to do on their own property\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIf government gave land to individuals, one in a 100 would succeed,\u201d he said. \u201cSmall farms in such a remote area cannot survive.\u201d<\/p>\n He said Rooi and former premier Manne Dipico agreed that the farm should be run as a co-operative \u201cbut could not control the situation\u201d.<\/p>\n Gjuvsland reported that the farmers split into \u201cpro-Gil\u201d and \u201canti-Gil\u201d groups, and the portfolio committee refers to conflict between old and new farmers.<\/p>\n The rift took on a racial complexion. The Mail & Guardian<\/em> reported on a meeting in Goodhouse at which one farmer said: \u201cGil en sy fokken wit honde moet weg van Goodhouse<\/em>\u201d (Gil and his fucking white dogs \u2013 a reference to his two white assistants \u2013 must get out of Goodhouse.)<\/p>\n “<\/em><\/strong>But politicians can\u2019t farm”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n After a good crop in the first year, Arbel said, the farmers insisted on being paid before the servicing of the Land Bank loan. They also started to sell their produce for cash to \u201cothers than the factory\u201d.<\/p>\n He reserved his sharpest criticism for the Northern Cape government, alleging that it \u201ccapitulated\u201d to unruly elements. After eight months, he was told to \u201cgo away and come back after the [2004] elections\u201d, while the politicians sorted out the problems. A year later the project was dead. \u201cThe MEC and the director general took over,\u201d he said. \u201cBut politicians can\u2019t farm. They look after their constituencies.\u201d<\/p>\n In November 2003, 21 farmers cancelled their contracts. \u201cWe did all the work. We want to farm, not engage in politics,\u201d a member of the group, George Cloete, was reported as saying in the M&G<\/em>. \u201cWe cannot work with a bunch of criminals and opstokers [troublemakers].\u201d<\/p>\n The remaining farmers took over the hiring of workers and payment of wages.<\/p>\n Arbel said vital resources, including kilometres of drip irrigation, pumps, filters and electric cabling used in the 555-hectare irrigation scheme, started disappearing. \u201cYou would see pipes being driven away on the back of bakkies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The portfolio committee noted that \u201cthe project lacked proper security \u2026 resulting in abuse, neglect and wreckage\u201d. It also found that individuals were \u201ctaking from the project for food security\u201d.<\/p>\n Arbel said, after being ousted, he sneaked back to find goats eating the paprika pods. He complained that the nearest police station was 120km away and that the government failed to provide local law enforcement.<\/p>\n A new chief executive was brought in from Pretoria, he said, but the farmers forced him out after a year.<\/p>\n “Killed” scheme<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n After Rooi was moved from the agriculture portfolio \u2013 Arbel claims because of the failure of the scheme \u2013 Tina Joemat-Pettersson (then the minister of agriculture) took over but also failed to rescue it.<\/p>\n Rooi, now the Northern Cape public works MEC, was asked detailed questions about Arbel\u2019s allegations through his spokesperson, Crystal Robertson, but did not respond.<\/p>\n Asked about claims that money intended for the project was misdirected for his own use, Arbel said the government investigated him but found no wrongdoing.<\/p>\n On claims that the company reneged on promises to pay farmers a R500 monthly wage, he said they had received what was in the budget until they \u201ckilled\u201d the scheme.<\/p>\n * Got a tip-off for us about this story? Click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n A former manager has lifted the lid on the collapse of a R150-million land reform scheme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/94x94.jpg\")
<\/a>The M&G<\/em> Centre for Investigative Journalism (amaBhungane) produced this story. All views are ours. See www.amabhungane.co.za <\/a> for our stories, activities and funding sources.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"