Craig Bishop
Seven years ago, the tiny Eastern Cape hamlet of Hertzog was referred to as the valley that died. Today, many of its 1 000 inhabitants have increased their earnings fivefold and are leading the way in community-based agricultural initiatives.
The national governments recently released draft, Rural Development Strategy, focuses on the concept of local economic development for the promotion of employment, marketing and infrastructure for rural communities. And Hertzog, at the foot of the Katberg mountains in the former Ciskei, has taken the local economic development process to heart.
Once the centre of tobacco farming in South Africa, the land was expropriated for the Ciskeian state in the 1970s. With the exception of a few state farms, the bulk of the land was fallow by 1993. All production had ceased, resulting in a total lack of employment, endemic male absenteeism and bitter conflict between residents and Oupa Gqozos Ciskeian state.
The Hertzog community realised they could not wait for the government to deliver and embarked on one of the most successful community-based initiatives in the Eastern Cape without government funding.
In 1994, with permission from the Department of Agriculture to farm unused land, assistance from the departments agricultural extension officers and R230 000 of funding from the Ciskei Agri-bank, the community set up its farming co- operative as a Section 21 company.
Community members then bought 100 shares each at a cost of R1 a share. This provided the company with the initial capital to allocate each member one hectare of land and sufficient piping for irrigation.
Success was rapid. Co-operative members brought in upwards of R3 000 each growing season through the sale of produce to itinerant traders.
Hertzogs fertile soil enjoys more than 600mm of rainfall a year and the nearby Kat River provides a regular supply of water. But, it is community vision, initiative and perseverance that is primarily responsible for Hertzogs renaissance.
Co-operative chair Elias Nykae said his valley was probably one of the happiest in South Africa. Everybody has something to do … we are so motivated … success breeds success.
Hertzog is surrounded by an Eastern Cape rural economy in virtual collapse. More than 22 000 jobs were lost in the Ciskei and Transkei, between 1991 to 1993. Butterworth and Umtata have seen more than 130 factories close in the past two years, with a flood of refugees moving from rural to urban areas.
This has created crisis flashpoints in many Eastern Cape towns, most notably Tsolo, Kei Road, Molteno and Ugie, and the trend is creating major obstacles for development, argues Rhodes University geography lecturer and development academic Etienne Nel.
But, Nel says, the whole country can learn from Hertzog. The experience of Hertzog is an inspirational one. Local economic development might not be the panacea for all the nations ills, but it is a strategy that can be applied to improve overall levels of welfare in the countryside.
Nel argues that the absence of political or social divisions within the co-operative created a spirit of mutual self-reliance and co-operation that has generated a dynamic entrepreneurial spirit.
The achievements, tangible gains and recognised improvements in quality of life have inculcated a feeling of community pride and a passion to ensure that the process succeeds.
Virtually all families in the community have at least one member in the co- operative and have thus benefited directly from the initiative.
Nel points out that the co-operative has also gone some way towards addressing gender imbalances within the traditionally marginalised position of rural women. More than half the farmers are women, who, according to Nel, have consistently proved themselves to be the most innovative and productive farmers.
National Business Initiative national local economic development co-ordinator Jerry Delaney says that Hertzog is a shining example of what communities are capable of achieving by themselves. But the marketing of produce and security of land tenure are two factors threatening to disrupt Hertzogs success.
They have demonstrated that people can do it on their own, but they have also made the point that producers need assistance from outside to get closer to consumers.
Like a lot of development initiatives at grassroots level, outside help is needed to woo them from being survivalists to something more.
Nel echoes this sentiment, saying that attempts at local economic development cannot always be totally locally driven because of local capacity constraints
National Business Initiative, together with the presidents office, compiled a resource kit for communities on local economic developments best practices and strategies. Delaney says Hertzog was listed in the top 40 examples in the country of good development practice.
While national and provincial governments attempt to free South African land reform from bureaucratic inertia, Hertzog has learnt one important lesson: self-reliance gets the job done quicker. DMA