'It's been reduced to ruins in front of our eyes': Bitter harvest as grape farm deal goes sour

Myde January was downcast this week when she recalled how Nirwanda - the Western Cape table grape farm where she has spent her young life - had looked a few years ago.

"The vines were green and pretty when I grew up. My parents worked on the farm and the future looked bright," said the 23-year-old.

Then the government bought the De Doorns property for land restitution purposes in 2012. "Everything went downhill," said January. "I think the last time grapes were produced here was in 2018."

January's family and other former farmworkers still live on Nirwanda but they work elsewhere. "Watching the farm deteriorate to this state was heartbreaking," she said.

"This field was filled with grape trees and they have all died from neglect. But what can we do? My parents found work on neighbouring farms."

Willem Borens, 63, worked at Nirwanda for 17 years. "What happened here is a very sad story. This farm has been reduced to ruins in front of our eyes," he said, surveying neglected vines, dilapidated buildings, leaking water pipes and the burnt-out remains of two tractors.

Nirwanda is now at the centre of a Cape Town high court eviction battle between the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and five land restitution beneficiaries who it says were selected irregularly before they formed a company called Big Five Co-operative.

In 2017 the SIU was tasked with investigating the selection of beneficiaries. In an affidavit, SIU senior forensic attorney Bernard Avenant lists a catalogue of alleged irregularities in the way the farm was purchased and handed to Weziwe Dlwengu, Mpho Malaoa, Monelo Bongo, Vuyani Vanyaza and Manduleli Mzayiya.

Avenant says the investigation found that when the department of rural development & land reform paid R19m for the farm in 2012, "it had neither identified any beneficiaries, nor any strategic partners for the beneficiaries, which resulted in the department entering into [three] short-term . lease agreements (for a period of nine months) with Quickvest [the previous owner]".

"During this period, Nirwanda farm was operated with state funding and Quickvest was allowed to retain the profits," he writes.

Meanwhile, 15 possible beneficiaries on the department's land reform database were shortlisted. They were "largely experienced table grape farmworkers from the local community, some of whom have been working on Nirwanda", says Avenant.

"None of the members of Big Five are from the area and only one had agricultural knowledge or experience. However, his experience was not in table grape farming."

In any case, the Big Five had committed themselves to a farm in Robertson, about 70km away, that the department was buying, he says. But when that deal fell through they complained to then-minister of rural development & land reform Gugile Nkwinti, who asked provincial chief director Babalwa Magoda to meet the men.

"Magoda personally instructed the project officer in respect of Nirwanda to show them the farm and stated that 'if they like the farm, they can have it'," says Avenant.

"The members of Big Five . indicated that they 'love' the farm, whereupon the department commenced with the implementation of Ms Magoda's instruction to allocate the farm to Big Five.

"Arrangements commenced for the establishment and registration of Big Five as a co-operative and for a lease agreement to be entered into with the department, despite the fact that the department's national land allocation and recapitalisation control committee . had not approved the appointment of Big Five members, or its members as land reform beneficiaries."

The amount the department of rural development & land reform paid for Nirwanda

—  R19m

However, Big Five's failure to develop a business plan - a condition of the handover - meant the lease agreement could not be signed.

By February 2014, the department realised it had made an error, says Avenant, and tried to include Nirwanda workers as beneficiaries. But "Big Five refused to co-operate with the department or follow the process required so the grants could be released to enable the farming to continue".

The price the previous owners paid five years earlier

—  R8M

A "strategic partner" pulled out and "all farming activities stopped more than [two] years ago. There has been no income since, electricity and water has been cut off and the farmworkers have been trying to survive without an income.

"In addition to constituting yet another failure in land reform, [the affair] resulted in an enormous amount of fruitless expenditure."

The SIU told the court that, "in order to ensure that a valuable asset is protected to avoid constitutional harms", it is necessary for the minister - if the eviction is granted - to report to the court on the steps the department will take to ensure the property is not illegally occupied.

Big Five's lawyer, Chwayita Mathiso, said the co-operative will fight the eviction but she said it has not yet developed its arguments or filed its papers opposing the SIU application.