In November last year, I was invited by the Mahlathi Stock Forum to a meeting asking me to help them with some of their farming issues as well as to also get their grievances to the media and South African parliament. 

The farmers have been suffering ever since the Department of Agriculture banned cattle sales because of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in 2021. However, they say that Makhoma Butchery based in the area has been prospering. Now the Mahlathi Stock Forum members are asking questions about why this business has been allowed preferential treatment by the Department, and have begun mobilising against it.

The department banned all sale of cattle due to an outbreak of FMD linked to wild animals in the Kruger National Park. However, Makhoma Butchery has secured a permit from the Department to buy livestock — at prices that are very unfavourable to farmers. Whereas before the outbreak, in 2021, a head of cattle could sell for R6,000, today the butcher will pay only between R4,500 and R5,000 per head.

According to the Department of Agriculture, a second outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) was detected in the previous FMD-free zone in Collins Chabane municipality (Vhembe) in Limpopo Province in March 2022. Infections were detected in two locations in the former FMD-free zone and included cattle in communal grazing areas in 2021. 

Cattle of a farmer in Limpopo. (Photo: Israel Nkuna)

Permit denials

The farmers have been trying to seek help from governing party officials from the start of the FMD outbreak but help was not available from the Department of Agriculture. Even after Minister of Agriculture Thoko Didiza visited Hlomela Village on 9 September 2022 and told the forum that their issues would be resolved nothing has changed and the forum no longer has hope in the ruling party because of empty promises.

Any attempts at resolving the issue between the Mahlathi Stock Forum and the Department have failed. The Forum has even found alternative buyers who are willing to buy at fair prices, but when they approach the Department for a permit, they are denied. The farmers say that the Department is preventing them from selling their livestock and can’t support their families anymore. 

The Stock Forum is suspicious that the department is giving Makhoma Butchery a monopoly, and has begun to mobilise in more than 50 communities. They want others to boycott Makhoma Butchery with their unfair pricing, and the butchery has begun to buy from further afield in response. Farmers from other villages in the Collins Chabane municipality have continued selling their livestock, seeing no other way to survive.

Food and mouth disease questions

As for the disease, the farmers of the Mahlathi Stock Forum say they have never had FMD in their herds. They say that, while FMD has been detected in the Collins Chabane Municipality, it hasn’t been found in Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality or Greater Giyani Municipality. They ask why the department doesn’t ban cattle sales in the affected region, rather than in theirs.

They are also complaining about a lack of compensation from Sanparks for livestock eaten by wildlife in their region. In order to survive and to support their families the farmers have now turned to selling cattle when there are events and funerals in their communities. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: Agriculture department shines light on foot-and-mouth and how to control the spread of the disease

A dead elephant outside Kruger National Park, Mahlathi Village. Sanpark officials killed the elephant and gave the meat to the communities of Mahlathi and surrounding areas. (Photo: Supplied)

When an elephant escaped from Kruger on 12 December last year, the department instructed Sanparks to kill it, and allowed communities of Mahlathi, Muyexe and surrounding areas to eat the meat. After that incident, another elephant escaped in December again between the 24th and 25th. It was also given to the communities of Muyexe to eat. 

Based on this it seems there is no risk of FMD, according to the department, and no ill effects were suffered by cattle herds, or by humans who ate the elephant meat. So farmers are asking why the ban on cattle sales should continue. Breeders have also pointed out that not a single cow has been medically tested and found to be infected in the area.

Enter the EFF

Now farmers in Giyani, Malamulele and other parts of Limpopo are asking the Economic Freedom Fighters leader, Julius Malema, to take these grievances to parliament. Farmers want fair prices, assistance from the Department of Agriculture, and they want unscrupulous businesses to be dealt with. They also need help with fencing to prevent their animals from being stolen by thieves. 

On 23 September last year, the EFF held an event where they campaigned in ward 19 at Mahlathi Village in Giyani, the delegation included EFF Limpopo Provincial Treasurer Tinyiko Manganye and EFF PR councillor Ntsako Segkobela. Also attending were 40 ANC members and farmers who voiced their grievances. Manganye promised the farmers that their issues would be resolved and that the EFF would help them, as they are part of law-making.

The Mahlathi Stock Forum members say that the political party that will assist them will get their vote, and they’re ready to go out to communities and campaign on their behalf. These farmers no longer have hope in the ruling party and believe corruption is affecting their livelihoods directly. DM

Israel Nkuna is a ward committee representative at Ward 19, a community activist, Human Rights, Social Grant’s Activist and Writer at Mahlathi Village in Limpopo, Giyani. 

Israel will be writing a monthly article about the 2024 elections, painting pictures of his villages and the entire Giyani region. You may also contact him at [email protected] or on WhatsApp: 082 433 8538