Question NW825 to the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
01 June 2020 - NW825
Montwedi, Mr Mk to ask the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
Whether there is a lease agreement between the Dilokwaneng Communal Property Association (CPA) and a certain person (Peter Sabatier); if so, has she found that the Dilokwaneng CPA complied with the Communal Property Associations Act, Act 28 of 1996? NW1028
Reply:
Yes, there is a signed lease. According to the current CPA Chairperson, Ms Mantsha Mosito, the lease was signed by her predecessors before she became the chairperson in 2012. The Department has established from Mr Ryan Sabatier, who signed the contract on behalf of a family company that the lease was signed in 2010, to run for a period of 15 years and will expire in 2025. Mr Sabatier left the company under the control of his father, Mr Peter Sabatier. Both Ms Mosito and Mr Ryan Sabatier confirmed that Mr Peter Sabatier has started to breach terms of the contract. He is no longer paying rent and is sub-letting the farm. Both acts are a violation of the signed contract.
It was reported in the 2018-2019 CPA Annual Report that this CPA was not fully compliant with the Act. During the 2019-2020 financial year, the Department undertook to train 900 Communal Property Associations across the country to assist them to be complaint with the Act, of which this CPA was also targeted since the current committee has been in office since 2012 and are beyond their term of office. The Limpopo PSSC invited them for training in October 2019, however, the committee failed to attend the training.
The Department is continuing with the training to ensure all CPAs are compliant with the Act and undertakes to ensure that this CPA will be assisted.