South Africa: Deputy Minister Judith Tshabalala Calls for Support of Historically Disadvantaged Farmers in the Northern Cape

5 November 2023
Government of South Africa (Pretoria)
press release

The Deputy Minister of the Department of Water and Sanitation Ms Judith Tshabalala has called on the Northern Cape Provincial government and the Dawid Kruiper and Kai! Garib Municipalities.to work together to assist the upcoming locally based vineyard farmers, particularly in Kakamas and Upington.

The Deputy Minister's interacted with the established vineyard farmers and heard their challenges which are mostly caused by a lack of service delivery in the area. There also five Historically Disadvantaged Individuals (HDI) projects that produce grapes Kakamas and have been allocated a total of 936 Hectares of water use entitlements and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) Farms area.

As the custodian of national water resources, the Department of Water and Sanitation has given support to the local farmers and the HDI's with its Water Allocation Reform (WAR), which ensures that the country's limited water resources are shared equitably for the best interest of the country.

However, most of the HDI projects have closed down because of lack of sufficient skills support and the service delivery challenges they experience from their local municipalities.

Three of these projects which received 261 hectares of water use rights were in a productive state when bought by Government and handed over to the new HDI owners. Two of the three produced export table grapes and the third wine produced grapes to the local cellars.

After the hand-over all these projects collapsed to a stand-still and there is currently no production of any kind at any of the HDI projects.

Deputy Minister Tshabalala called on the provincial government and the local municipalities to have a close working relationship to ensure that the HDI's do take off and become successful for the benefit of local economic growth in the area. She said this is part of Government's Economic Recovery Plan to build a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable economy.

Mr Xolani Zwane, the Department's Deputy Director-General responsible for compliance, monitoring and evaluation said the Department is working on a revised Memorandum of Understanding with Northern Cape Department of Agriculture, Environmental Affairs, Rural Development and Land Reform. The MoU will look into the water pricing strategy for the HDI projects in the area, and to strengthening the relations between the two Departments.

Read the original article on Govt of SA.

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