OBITUARY: SA agriculture mourns Gift Mafuleka, inspiring farmer and advocate for land reform

When one thinks of the young generation of new entrant black farmers in South Africa, Gift Mafuleka always comes to mind. An affable, refreshing and inspiring person who was always eager to engage about on-the-ground farming experiences, organised agriculture politics and his dreams for policy direction in the sector.

Various media houses often interviewed Gift, and some visited his farm, both to hear more about his inspiring farming journey and to explore the close proximity of his farm to various big cities. He farmed in Bronkhorstspruit, a small town of just under 5,000 people, located 50km east of Pretoria in Gauteng province.

But Gift’s journey into the SA farming sector started far from the heart of Gauteng and the major organised agriculture environment in which so many of us met him.

He came from the Esikhawini region of Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal. Gift started farming commercially in Bronkhorstspruit after a successful stint at McCain Foods South Africa (McCain), where he had progressed to crop manager on one of their farms.

After Gift left McCain to start his own enterprise, he leased a farm from the government, which it had obtained from private owners for land reform – known as Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (Plas) farms, one of the land redistribution strategies introduced in 2006.

Non-tradable short-term leases

The farms acquired in this manner are not yet transferred to black land reform beneficiaries; instead, they are granted non-tradable short-term leases, with the land’s ownership remaining with the government. This is one of the issues that haunted him for years, as we often talked about land reform issues, and his hope to own the farm he operated. Gift’s main focus was vegetables, produced on his roughly 350-hectare farm. He supplied some of the surrounding businesses and was generally deserving of the opportunity to fully own the farm.

These leases on government property typically run for five to 30 years, followed by an option to transfer ownership, which seldom happens. This time frame in itself is frightening, as it suggests that if one receives a lease at age 30, one might have the option to buy the land at age 60 – this in a country where life expectancy is 66. This means a person can farm their whole life without ever having ownership and making a tangible investment in a farm under legislative arrangements such as the Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy. Gift wanted this to change, and I often assured him of the work we are doing to improve the policy environment to enable black farmers to own these farms.

Gift was always curious to know about the agricultural policy discussions in Pretoria and what those of us in policy thought was the way forward to improving the participation of black farmers in commercial agriculture. After all, black farmers in SA still produce about 10% of total commercial agricultural output.

Confronted by this reality, Gift always insisted on knowing the practical means to address the dualism in SA’s agricultural sector, while simultaneously ensuring its growth and sustainability.

Poor and slow implementation

The poor and slow implementation of land reform, inefficient government decisions and support systems, poorly structured financial support, bureaucratic delays, drought and animal diseases have all entrenched the divide between commercial agriculture (mainly white) and subsistence farming (mainly black).

Indeed, at the dawn of democracy, few people probably thought that SA would still be battling the phenomenon of “two agricultures” – or dualism – after three decades.

Although some progress has been made as black farmers have joined commercial production and supply chains, the numbers remain disappointing, at less than 10%. Admittedly, there are commodities in which the inclusion of black farmers is much better than others. But the point remains that the path ahead is challenging (Inde’lendlela).

Gift died on Saturday, 28 February 2026, and he leaves behind both an inspiring legacy and deep pain for the SA agricultural sector, his family, and loved ones.

Leaders in agriculture must build on Gift’s inspiring work, and continue his vision of improving the conditions of black farmers and sustaining the existing commercial farming sector.

May Gift Mafuleka rest in peace, and may God bless his memory. DM

Wandile Sihlobo is the Presidential Envoy on Agriculture and Land. He is also the chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, and a senior research fellow in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Stellenbosch University.