Agriculture is the future for the sadly neglected Deep South. An economic development plan is in place and soon the makings of an entire meal will be produced in the region.
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NE cannot help but evoke a sense of fresh air and beautiful open spaces with names such as Orange Farm, Poortjie, Finetown and Mountainview.
Margaret Majokana harvests the spinach
Despite their promising names, these places are all informal settlements scattered about the dry, open veld of Johannesburg’s most isolated yet potentially fruitful area - Region G.
It is exactly this availability of large tracts of open agricultural land that may save this economically isolated region from increasingly bad odds. With 62 percent of the population of almost a million unemployed, most residents find food security a growing threat.
Urban agriculture is the single most important initiative able to turn the region around, believes the regional director, Mlamleli Belot.
“We have already started with discussions. This region is earmarked to stimulate agricultural growth. In the long term we want to make it an agricultural hub,” he says.
To assist it in its growth plans, the City’s department of economic development recently completed a comprehensive economic development framework for the region. It was approved by the council on 13 August.
The plan
The agricultural sector features high on the plan’s agenda, which also highlights the potential to grow the manufacturing, retail, transport and tourism sectors.
The informal settlement of Orange Farm
Other spheres of government have also ploughed into the area. The Gauteng department of agriculture, conservation and environment and the public works department run various programmes to support farmers.
Farmers are assisted financially and technically to set up farms, food security programmes are in place and training is ongoing. Land is leased from the government, with the option to buy at a later stage.
Already, some 169 farmers are actively tilling the soil, especially around the Rietfontein area of Region G.
“The whole idea is for the government to give a head start and for the owner to take it from there,” says Belot. In the end, farmers must be able to move away from subsistence farming to fully fledged commercial enterprises.
And some of them are already doing exactly that.
Star farmer
Margaret Majokana is one such farmer. Rows of deep green spinach stand knee-high in her three vegetable tunnels. A radio belts out popular songs while she pulls out weeds.
Two months ago she supplied a fast-food chain with green, yellow and red peppers grown from these same tunnels. Behind her, a small plot of land has been planted with yellow cling peaches. Her only regret is that she could not plant more fruit trees: her money ran out.
But farming is tough going. Her bakkie needs a new gearbox; seed prices have gone up; profits are small. But she smiles happily. She has bigger plans.
The CBD of Eldorado Park will get a serious cash injection in the near future
She says: “You know what. If I can see myself having cows, goats, sheep, I’ll be the happiest. With livestock you really feel like a farmer.”
Majokana shares experiences and learns new tricks of the trade at the Farmers’ Co-operative, established at an abandoned police station next to her farm. A study group of about 15 farmers meet every fortnight to learn about conservation of agricultural resources and land care.
Evelyn Smith is another success story from this group. She was the provincial runner up in the female farmer category this year and regularly supplies the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market.
In nearby Lawley, Priscilla Goocin has just received 1 000 chicks for her newly built chicken battery, set up with the assistance of the provincial and national governments.
When the chicks are 40 weeks old, she will sell them alive to the Lawley community and start again, this time with her own money. Throughout the process and in the future, she will be assisted with marketing and technical support.
“The idea from the government is to slowly go the commercial route,” confirms Belot.
Little formal investment
The Deep South, as Region G is also called, is still largely untouched by private investment.
At the moment, most of those in the area in formal employment work in the community and social services sector, particularly outside the region. Economically active nodes are concentrated in the northern parts, particularly in Lenasia.
Informal business is the dominant form of trade. Almost half of the population is young, the residents in the prime of their economically active years. But they continue to live in the squalor of typical informal homes and sell chickens, eggs, and packets of mixed fresh vegetables and fruit to their fellow inhabitants.
Those who have work, commute long distances daily. Stretford Station in Orange Farm is the central meeting place for everyone. From here commuters catch taxis and trains to Roodepoort, the city centre and the southeast of Johannesburg.
It is also the place to make a quick phone call at a wobbly table, or stock up on tomatoes and chillies for your vegetable and pap supper.
Stretford Station suffers from years of neglect and overuse. Not a blade of grass or a fleck of green is to be seen. Instead, brick-red soil, compacted hard by years of tyre abuse, greets the commuter. It must be quite a skill to reach the other side clean and in one piece on a rainy day.
The station building itself looks like a huge, carnivorous warehouse, about to swallow its unsuspecting visitors. Yet somehow, the yellow and grey Metro Rail snake emerges, taking its passengers either east or west.
The station is one of the key economic nodes to be developed during this financial year, confirms Belot. The contractor is already on site and has started with the stormwater, sewer and other infrastructure upgrades.
“The project will be done in phases. By about 2011, we’ll see the fruition of the whole project.” On completion the hub will consist of ablution facilities, trading facilities, proper taxi ranks, offices and shops for bigger retailers.
“We are looking at the convenience of commuters and hawkers.”
Other nodes that are in the planning and feasibility phases for upgrades are the Poortjie taxi rank and the central business district of Eldorado Park. The development framework for Eldorado Park will be finalised by the end of the year.
In a few years’ time this stowed away region will come into its own, Belot strongly believes.
He has promised Executive Mayor Amos Masondo that in the near future, an entire meal will be able to be produced in this area, from the chicken, potatoes and vegetables, to the milk, cheese and salad.
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