A novel quid pro quo deal, involving the state taking over farm capital costs in exchange for land for emerging farmers, was presented to President Thabo Mbeki during his Western Cape imbizo tour.
Adrian Wolfaardt, chairperson of the Koekedouw Irrigation Board, said on Tuesday he had appealed to Mbeki to intervene, saying that the deal could possibly involve the transfer of 1 800 hectares, secure about 1 400 jobs and create 600 new jobs and 800 seasonal jobs.
”But the state must buy in, in order for the plan to work,” Wolfaardt said.
Farmers estimated it would cost the government about R67-million to buy shares in the Koekedouw dam.
Tracing the history of South Africa’s largest private dam and the rationale behind the offer, Wolfaardt said it was finished in 1998, after a group of 28 farms and the local municipality agreed to get a private bank loan to build the new dam. The old dam was damaged during the 1969 earthquake in Ceres.
”The escalating costs of having to pay back the bank loan has meant that farms are unprofitable, with some farms having to pay water bills of over R1-million per annum. Some have even been liquidated,” he said.
Wolfaardt said that commercial farmers were currently paying approximately R11 000 per hectare per year for summer irrigation water, as a result of the costs of building the dam doubling from just more than R50-million initially to about R105-million.
The increased costs were caused by a number of factors, the most important being the discovery — when engineers dug down to lay the dam’s foundation — that the underlying rock was too weak. Additional layers of reinforcement were needed.
”What we are saying is that government has other priorities such as access to land and crime. Why can’t we combine the facilitation of access to land with the state making a contribution to the capital costs of the water? These farmers are the major employers in the district, and it would be politically and socially acceptable to the community,” he said.
Meanwhile, the mayor of the Witzenberg municipality — which includes Ceres, Tulbagh, Prince Albert Hamlet and Wolseley — said he agreed in principle with the proposal.
”As a matter of policy if the government can assist us, then it could set a precedent for other municipalities in the country facing the same water shortage pressures,” said Witzenberg mayor John Schuurman.
He said with the prevailing water shortages all over the country, municipalities might be called on to build their own dams in future to ensure water security.
”The water costs in Witzenberg to the consumer is comparatively higher than other municipalities,” he said, adding that assistance from the government could ”really help” the 80 000 inhabitants.
Western Cape agriculture MEC Johan Gelderblom, who accompanied Mbeki to the Ceres meeting, said that the province was waiting for ”formal instructions from the president’s office to all three of the bodies — national Water Affairs Ministry, national Agriculture Ministry and the province — in order to take the matter forward, because of protocol.”
Glen Thomas, the deputy director general of land and tenure reform in the Department of Land Affairs, said: ”Let them come forward with their proposals. We will look at the merits and demerits in terms of the current policy framework of willing buyer-willing seller.”
Thomas said he would be unable to comment further until a ”detailed proposal” was forwarded to the ministry. — Sapa