Rural Development
The Makhoba people regained their ancestral land as the result of a successful claim resolved by South Africa’s land restitution process, shortly after the installation of the first majority-elected government. The people had originally come from what is now Swaziland and settled in the area, where they raised sheep and Nguni cattle on land given to them by the English. They stayed there through the end of World War II.
But during the early days of apartheid, they were forcibly removed. White soldiers arrived with a large cannon in tow, and fired directly into a wall in the village, shaking the very land and its people. All of the Makhobas were loaded into trucks and scattered in different locations. In 1994, the community lodged an application with the country’s new Land Claims Commission to get their land back. They identified the property that had been theirs by describing the geographic markers of its boundaries, and by producing witnesses. With the claim decided in their favor, they returned to the land and continued to subsist on minimal government social grants, money sent from relatives working in other parts of the country, and small numbers of cattle and a few garden products cultivated with an old Ford tractor. Hunger was a daily threat to the community of 1,400 families – approximately 7,000 people.
The community noted that white farmers who had settled on the land after the Makhoba’s removal had used the land to grow walnuts, beef, cattle, sheep and maize, and had even set up a cheese factory. The Makhobas’ primary obstacle was not vision, but their lack of access to the finance and technical assistance to put the land to productive use.
With the help of an initial grant from the national Department of Land Affairs and the country’s largest agricultural consultant company. AFGISA (with which the Makhobas signed a five-year contract), the community established the Makhoba Trust (administered by 4 trustees in addition to the chief and an outside auditor), and designed a commercial project to cultivate maize on 3,000 of the community’s 13,000 productive hectares (approximately 32,000 acres). Together with AFGISA, the community designed a project to produce maize for commercial sale on South Africa’s SAFEX exchange. With the help of a Shared Interest/Thembani guarantee, they have obtained a loan from First National Bank (FNB) and begun to grow maize.
With the approval of the project, Chief Makhoba selected 40 initial participants, depending on their need and their interest in growing maize. The project is designed to sell 30 tons of maize at a guaranteed price negotiated with the South African Forward Exchange, SAFEX.
This year, due to a late start, the project will cultivate 700 hectares of maize to be harvested in July. This abbreviated first growing season will employ 24 new farmers, particularly in the preparation of the soil, planting and use of fertilizer. At the same time, a number of women are being instructed in the establishment of small gardens.
The guarantee assumes 24.6% of the risk of the project. The rest is covered by FNB (which is responsible for any losses before the crop emerges from the ground); and commercial multi-peril crop insurance (which covers losses due to factors such as weather and pests).
Based on the fact that Thembani and the trust have signed the agreement, FNB has extended for the first phase of the project (the phase before the crops “emerge,” during which the bank itself carries the entire risk). It is expected that the bank (whose manager has been ill) will sign off on the agreement within the next two weeks, enabling Shared Interest to issue the letter of credit to back the subsequent stages of the project.
Chief Makhoba
Chief Makhoba, member of the Makhoba Trust in Matatiele, KwaZulu-Natal
“This land has a history of its own. That is why we are so happy to be back…We’ve got our land again. Now we need the knowledge to use the land. Our aim is to use the land to give life to 1,400 households, each with at least five members…If we could put you in our boots, we would ask how could you feed so many people? We identify the poorest and try to help them. This land must take responsibility for feeding this community.”
— Chief Makhoba, member of the Makhoba Trust in Matatiele, KwaZulu-Natal
Eugene Novuka, director of Makhoba in Matatiele, KwaZulu-Natal
Eugene is a director of the Makhoba Trust, an organization of the Makhoba clan. After working for Old Mutual, Eugene returned to his community when it regained its ancestral land.
After returning to the land, Eugene recalled, “we saw how others had developed the area. We wanted to supply food for the nation.” “You can have a lot of vision,” he reflected, “but the problem is finance.”
“Our main aim,” he explained, “is to change the environment – to teach people to be independent. To get freedom you have to work for it. We are no longer in the military phase of the struggle. We are in a new phase now: Economic development. We need to take part in that. We think that what our people learn here will change their mindset. There is a need out there. Don’t expect the government not address it. You must address it.”
Describing the white farmers and advisors assisting the project, Eugene noted that they “were previously our enemies. Now they are our good friends. Now you cannot separate us…People are the same. We have just discovered that.”