The building which was meant to be a fresh produce warehouse for small scale farmers in Nkandla is now operating as Pakistani hardware. Pic: Bongani Hans
RENTING out a community facility in Nkandla Municipality to a foreign national to run a hardware store has caused anger as some of the residents believe it should be used for its initial purpose, which was to benefit small-scale farmers.
The hall was built more than a decade and a half ago as a fresh produce warehouse where vegetable producers would store their produce and sell to street vendors.
However, it has been rented to a foreign national who pays about R35 000 per month including VAT to the municipality to use the facility.
A farmer told Sunday Tribune that there was a desperate need for a facility where farmers could store their fresh produce and use it as a central point to sell.
“Whenever we had a meeting with the Department of Agriculture, we would propose the idea of having a warehouse or storage for our produce where street vendors and community members could come to buy from us.
“If this facility was meant for us, those who occupy it should vacate so that we could come in,” said the farmer who asked not to be named for fear of intimidation.
However, the current tenant said there was nothing untoward about them renting the property.
Hardware store manager Ali Sulman said the owner Nagrah Umar Khatab was currently in Pakistan.
“My boss started renting this place after signing a contract with the municipality in 2017 and the lease agreement is renewable annually.
“We were told that before my boss, a Chinese operated a scrap yard here between 2010 and 2016,” said Sulman.
Municipality spokesperson Bongiwe Zuma said local small scale farmers were invited to use the facility soon when it was opened in the 2006/2007 financial year, but since they were in the process of formalizing their structure, the facility had to be rented out to the very Nkandla people for other uses.
She said initially, there were interests from the local business people to use the facility.
“However, they couldn’t continue operating the facility for an extended period of time, until the invite for other businesses was issued and the current tenant, Nagrah Construction, having met with all the requirements, was found to be successful, and the lease agreement was concluded with them.
“The current account history and lease agreement with Nagrah Construction started in 2017,” she said.
She said the rental money contributed to the revenue of the rural municipality, which depended on grants from the national and provincial government.
“The municipality is therefore supplementing its own revenue from renting out the facilities,” she said.
Former councillor Phumzile Thusini who served in the municipality for more than 20 years said the facility was part of a project to support the small-scale farmers. However, its intended purpose collapsed because the municipality did not provide it with refrigerators and an air conditioner to keep vegetables fresh and in good condition to be sold.
“It was supposed to be used by community members who are ploughing vegetables in various wards to use it as a central point for vendors at the taxi rank to buy from the farmers.
“The farmers were supposed to use it without paying rent since it was a community facility, but since there were things that the municipality did not do for the facility to meet the requirements, the farmers could not use it,” she said.
Thusini said after the facility was left vacant for a while, there was a concern that it might be vandalized.
“Some people used it for a short period before it was rented out the Chinese, but they left around 2015 or 2016 as they could not afford it.
“Then the current operator came looking to use it, and I advised him to approach the municipality,” said Thusini.
She said it was a good idea to rent the property to avoid becoming a white elephant and vulnerable to vandalism, “which was going to be a waste of taxpayers’ money”.
“Instead of it being vandalised it was suggested that it would be better to be rented out and generate some revenue for the municipality,” she said.
She said the rural municipality was in desperate need of any cent it could get as it was surviving through equitable share from the national government.
“Since most of the community members are unemployed, there were less than 100 household paying rates.
“There are few shops that are paying rates,” she said.
She said the municipality needs money to provide services such as maintaining electricity infrastructure and repairing the town’s access roads among the few requirements.
However, another farmer said her priority was not a warehouse as farmers in the area were struggling to produce enough vegetables because of a lack of ploughing tools, which should be provided to them by the municipality and provincial government.
“If that property was still opened to us, it would remain idle because we lacked agricultural tools such as tractors to till the fields and produce enough vegetables to send to the warehouse.
“We had been trying to secure the contract to provide our vegetables to Boxer Store, but we cannot keep up with its demand for 250 cabbages per week.
“We need the municipality and the Department of Agriculture to come together and provide us with the tools such as tractors, thereafter once we have enough produce, we could start talking about the warehouse,” she said.
According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development MEC Thembeni KaMadlopha-Mthethwa’s 2024/2025 budget speech, the department has “submitted an application for Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES)-3 for funding for a total amount of R137 million to implement projects for the 2024/25 financial year whose primary focus is to assist subsistence farmers and rural households with food access.”