Joint ventures in South Africa's land reform programme ... - ISS

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$(Microsoft PowerPoint - Presentaci\363n CCs La Haya - 2013 ... - ISS$

usiness skills. This is intended to maximize the involvement of the community in all aspects of farming and to prepare them to eventually take over the entire business. This describes the broad model of strategic partnerships deduced from official policy statements, company reports and interviews with all the main parties involved. An ongoing difficulty, however, is the somewhat vague nature of many of the key agreements, changing (and often conflicting) perceptions between the parties and over time, and the failure of many of the anticipated benefits of the model to materialize, as shown below. Furthermore, Richmond, the latest of the four partnerships to be established at Moletele, differs from the other three in a number of respects. First, it is located on a single relatively large property, rather than being spread across multiple properties; second, the property is relatively underdeveloped, although and there are plans to substantially expand the area under irrigation and introduce sugarcane for purposes of ethanol production; and third, the nature of the partnerships is closer to a conventional lease rather than a joint venture. This arrangement is referred to locally as a ‘Community-Private Partnership’, to distinguish it from the other ‘strategic partnerships’ but, in practice, the difference between these ventures may not be so great. 5.1 New Dawn New Dawn Farming Enterprise (Pty) Ltd) was formed in 2008 as a joint venture between the Moletele CPA and Strategic Farm Management (SFM), a company formed specifically for this purpose by a group of local landowners who were bought out as part of the restitution process. In its original form, New Dawn adhered closely to the general model of strategic partnership then being promoted by office of the Regional Land Claims Commissioner and the Limpopo Department of Agriculture but it has since suffered a number of setbacks that have forced departures from the original model. The partnership encompasses a total of 1,019 hectares of land, 296 hectares of which is currently under irrigation, consisting mainly of mangos and citrus. Plans have been drawn up to establish a further 249ha of citrus under irrigation. Water for irrigation is supplied from the Blydepoort Dam and, under a subsidy scheme of the Department of 11
Water Affairs, is provided at a reduced rate, saving the enterprise an estimated R700,000 per year in water charges. In addition, 326ha of non-irrigated land are used for grazing of cattle, and 79ha are leased to a neighbouring farmer. The farm, which consists of four former properties, is well supplied with internal roads, houses, sheds, a fruit packing house and an achar (pickle) factory. New Dawn currently employs 69 permanent workers and about 117 seasonal workers. This is planned to increase to about 148 permanent and 323 seasonal workers once the proposed developments have been implemented (New Dawn Feasibility Study, 2008). FIGURE 2 : MANAGEMENT STRUCTURES AND INTEREST GROUPS ON MOLETELE LAND Moletele Community The Moletele CPA owns 52% of the shares in New Dawn Farming and SFM owns the remaining 48%. The Board of Directors has seven members: three representatives from the Moletele community, three from SFM and a non-voting (ex officio) member representing the Limpopo Department of Agriculture. In terms of the lease agreement 12
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Page 29: Von Braun, J. and Meinzen-Dick, R.

Joint ventures in South Africa's land reform programme ... - ISS

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