Farmer of the year comes under fire
SA's top commercial woman farmer for 2015 owes millions of rands and is facing charges for cruelty to animals.
|||Durban - South Africa’s top commercial woman farmer for 2015 owes millions of rands and is facing multiple criminal charges for cruelty to animals.
To qualify for the R350 000 award as Top Commercial Entrepreneur from the Department of Agriculture, Winterton farmer Hlengiwe Hlophe was to have proved that she had been running her farm, Ukwanda Farms, for two years without reproach.
Hlophe, who is based in Johannesburg, said she was satisfied that she qualified for the award. She said people in the community were jealous of her.
During the period under review for the award, she was under investigation by the national director of public prosecutions (and later cleared) and her farm had been under the curatorship of the Pietermaritzburg High Court since 2013.
The investigation was linked to charges of corruption against land reform officials responsible for administrating the property transfer in 2009.
Hlophe was cleared in March 2015 but was ordered to settle an outstanding R14 million debt to First National Bank by March 31 this year. If she failed to comply the court could reinstate the curatorship and give the bank the go-ahead to apply to repossess the farm.
The bank’s lawyer Adam Lombard said this week the money had yet to be repaid and judgment was pending for the total amount. He was awaiting instructions from the bank.
Nazareth Applesamy, a senior inspector at the SPCA, was called to the farm in June 2014 after Howick vet Edgar Orhtmann found that livestock were dying of thirst and hunger and housed in cruel conditions.
An urgent order was then granted to the curator, Eugene Nel, by the Pietermaritzburg High Court to sell all the pigs and hens. The money was to be used to pay for the costs of the feed and care of the animals until they were sold.
A case of five counts of cruelty to animals is still pending, according to Applesamy.
Hlophe said when the farm was under curatorship she struggled because her bank accounts were frozen.
She said she understood the only criteria for the award were to be South African citizen and an operating woman farmer.
“I bought a stinking farm. It’s through my blood and sweat. We built it up from scratch. People in the community are just jealous,” she said.
When asked about the cruelty charges, she said she needed a manager to make sure she met her obligations, and have someone who lived on the farm.
When The Mercury visited the farm last week it was under the management of a North West poultry supplier, SK&AM Poultry, to which Hlophe allegedly owed R1.5 million.
Johann Labuschagne, the manager on the farm, said the 25 000 hens bought by Hlophe were laying just 1 000 eggs a day because of mismanagement when he arrived on August 3.
Labuschagne said he had also brought workers from the North West as there were staff “issues” on the farm.
The department’s adjudicators of the award, which included a representative of the department’s Women in Agriculture and Rural Development unit, visited the farm in July, according to a provincial Department of Agriculture statement on Wednesday.
Hlophe received the award in Durban on August 27.
Zandile Masuku, a manager at the department, who was in charge of organising the prize, said Hlophe’s financial woes and investigation by the SPCA were “private matters”.
“We only looked at the production. The enterprise was operational. We looked at the bank statements. We don’t look at what she owes,” she said.
On the department’s entry form, farmers eligible for the award had to display:
- Good governance.
- A clean set of books.
- Proof of markets to which products were supplied consistently.
- Adherence to industry standards.
- Creation and retention of permanent jobs and proof of compliant labour practices.
In the statement, the department’s Lelethu Manentsa said the farm was now being monitored.
Sandy la Marque, the chief executive of the KwaZulu-Natal Agriculture Union (Kwanalu), said farmers who were given awards should be role models in the farming community.
“The criteria are very clear. Surely there must have been more worthy recipients?”
The Mercury