A FARM bought by the Mopani District Municipality for R2,9 million from the Land Bank in 2007 to empower youth Agricultural Cooperatives lies abandoned outside Tzaneen.

The previously productive fruit farm, Moshupatsela, situated at Broederstroomdrift has become overgrown with weeds and it has derelict and ransacked farmhouses and packing sheds.

Farming equipment and other facilities at the farm has been destroyed

Part of the farm has been turned into a squatter camp by some families who worked for the previous owner of the farm who has since passed on.

About 81 families living at the farm and are refusing to leave claiming they have no place to go as they were born on the farm.

Farm owners, the Mopani District Municipality demolished their houses after obtaining a court order to evict them. They refused to leave demanding guarantees for permanent houses before they left for new accommodation. They finally rebuilt their shacks.

The palisade fencing erected by the municipality to keep the squatters out of the farm has been cut open.

After the farm was purchased, the former executive mayor of Mopani District Municipality, Humphrey Mokgobi said feasibility study was conducted on the farm and the that orchard growing, vegetable production, dried fruit, juice and atchar production were identified as four key business initiatives.

At an initial stage the project brought together four youth agricultural cooperatives from around Mopani.

Through the orchard management, 16 job opportunities were created, which included six farm workers and 10 cooperatives and hundreds more job opportunities were expected to be created when the municipality abandoned the project.

The R800 000 funding the municipality received from the European Union to expand the project by establishing a fresh produce market at Nkowakowa industrial area could not be accounted for. The fresh produce market was expected to create 41 permanent jobs and hundreds more indirectly.

“Not only had the project failed, but it had also cost jobs,” said one of the former employees, Thomas Khosa.

He said the farm used to employ hundreds of people and even more during harvesting time. He said they have not been unemployed since the municipality abandoned the farm three years ago.

Municipal spokesperson, Tumelo Malaka promised to comment after speaking to his superiors but had not done so at the time of going to press.