Wednesday, 07 May 2025

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes with deep concern the continued failure of the Land Bank to effectively implement and monitor the Blended Finance Programme, a key intervention meant to uplift black farmers and drive true transformation in the agricultural sector.

This programme, relaunched in October 2023 by the former Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, was widely welcomed as a long-overdue tool to provide black farmers with access to capital — to acquire land and finance agricultural production. The EFF welcomed this initiative, recognising it as a potentially revolutionary step toward correcting historical land and economic injustices.

The concept of blended finance aimed at commercialising and capacitating black farmers has been part of government policy for more than a decade, with the Land Bank designated as its primary implementing agent. However, to date, the Land Bank has spectacularly failed to deliver on this mandate.

Unlike the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), which has made commendable progress in implementing the same programme, the Land Bank remains plagued by administrative dysfunction, a lack of technical vision, and an utter failure to institute the necessary monitoring and support systems for funded projects.

The EFF is appalled by the systemic incompetence and the deliberate sabotage of black farmers by a state institution that should be at the forefront of agrarian reform. Since the relaunch of the Blended Finance Programme, the Land Bank has achieved little, with only minimal success and a trail of failures that continue to demoralise and bankrupt black farmers across the country.

We cite as a case study the Land Bank’s acquisition of a 930-hectare farm in Potchefstroom for a black woman poultry farmer. The price of the farm was negotiated down from R21 million to R14 million, with five chicken houses each meant to hold 10,000 chicks. Yet, in a shocking demonstration of incompetence, the Land Bank neglected to invest in the broader potential of the farm. While the previous owner diversified production with livestock and crop farming, the Land Bank focused solely on poultry, reducing the farm to a mono-income stream, and setting the farmer up for financial collapse.

To make matters worse, the poultry infrastructure was in a dilapidated state, with poor ventilation and substandard facilities. This led to high poultry mortality rates, which eventually resulted in Supreme Chicken pulling out as an off-taker after three years of the Land Bank’s failure to renovate or upgrade the facilities. The project is now in distress, and the farmer is unable to service her loan.

This is but one example of many. The Land Bank continues to waste public funds and destroy black livelihoods due to its incompetence and lack of capacity. Its actions reflect a deeper rot, a capitalist structure within the state machinery that prioritises bureaucratic lethargy over black economic emancipation.

The EFF is unwavering in its demand for the review and amendment of the Land Bank Act to return the institution to the Department of Agriculture, where it belongs. The current arrangement, which places the bank under the Department of Finance, has made oversight near impossible and rendered the Department of Agriculture powerless in holding the bank accountable.

We further demand that the Minister of Finance takes immediate steps to fully capacitate the Land Bank with qualified, ideologically committed, and technically capable personnel who can implement the Blended Finance Programme with integrity and urgency.

The EFF will not stand by while institutions meant to empower our people become graveyards of black ambition. We call for decisive action and revolutionary accountability.

ISSUED BY THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS

Leigh-Ann Mathys (National Spokesperson) 082 304 7572

Thato Lebyane (Media Enquiries) 078 304 7572