Pretoria - Deputy Rural Development and Land Affairs Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla will this morning be assessing progress and challenges on three farms in Tzaneen, Limpopo.
The three farms, Mokgobolotho and Mamahlola and Marama were restored to communities who were forcefully removed in terms of the Native Land Act under the apartheid government.
Phaahla's walk-about at the farms forms part of the department's process to monitor and evaluate progress of land acquired by communities through land reform to ensure that the farms do not become white elephants.
Mokgobolotho is a successful farm project which grows mainly mangoes and Mamahlola is a struggling banana farm. Both these farms are in the Mopani District Municipality which comprises five local municipalities that extend over approximately 10 000 square kilometers in the north east of Limpopo.
The economy of the district consists of mining and commercial farming industries. All these co-exist with vast tracts of subsistence farming, low level of economic activity.
Most of the productive farms in the area are under claim. At Marama, Phaahla will be engaging with the beneficiaries in a question-and-answer session where he will listen to their concerns.
His visit will start at Mamahlola and Letsitele Valley and then proceed to Mokgobolotho, in the afternoon he will conclude his visit at Marama.
