The Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Ms Lulu Xingwana, has promised a speedy return of the land that was forcefully taken from the rightful owners, so that the poor communities are able to utilize it for job-creation projects.

She said the government believed in rural development, land distribution and food security, which are aimed at empowering the majority of the poor rural communities.

Xingwana addressed hundreds of people while officially launching one of the revitalized projects, the Tshivhase Tea Estate, on Thursday at Phiphidi village outside Thohoyandou in Limpopo. The project, costing more than R24million, was launched during a function which saw the newly elected premier of Limpopo, Cassel Mathale, the MEC for Agriculture, Dikeledi Magadzi, traditional leaders and many community members in attendance.

Xingwana said her department would help in marketing the tea products to all parts of the country.

The Tshivhase Tea Estate, which is now home to the newly “Midi Tea,” with the name derived from Thovhele Midiyavhathu Tshivhase, has secured more than 500 hectares of land at Duthuni village near Thohoyandou.

The tea estate was created some 45 years ago with the aim of creating jobs for the rural communities within the Tshivhase Dynasty and surrounding villages.

Xingwana hailed the newly revitalized project as a model that other provinces with the same projects could emulate. She called on the Kwazulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces who have similar tea estates projects to learn from what the Tshivhase Tea Estate in Limpopo was doing. “We are impressed with the quality of tea that is being planted, processed and packaged in the factory and we urge all the workers and their traditional leader to continue doing their good work for the benefit of our communities,” she said

Xingwana added that the previous owners of the tea plantation claimed that the project had become unprofitable due to high worker minimum wage, high production cost structure and land claims, but the provincial agriculture department had the idea of revitalizing it as one of the strategies to create job opportunities for the rural masses.

MEC for Agriculture Ms Dikeledi Magadzi said the tea project would impact on economic development and creation of job opportunities in rural areas.

“Limpopo takes pride in this new initiative and the department of agriculture has proven once again that moving from farming to agricultural industrial development thorough an integrated value chain approach can anchor economic sustainability. About 2 400 jobs are created annually through this approach and intervention,” said Magadzi.

According to Magadzi, economically marginalized rural inhabitants of the Tshivhase community will benefit from the project through employment and inter-related secondary services in rural areas.

Thovhele Midiyavhathu Tshivhase, who was visibly happy, said the project would go a long way in easing poverty in his area when the project became fully operational and they would be absorbed in areas of planting, processing, packaging and branding in the factory.

He said the tea would soon hit the shelves of most stores in the province and other parts of the country.

“Real development will only take place when communities themselves are fully involved in such projects. Poverty, hunger and job losses will be a thing of the past to our rural masses if we join hands and work as a team,” added Tshivhase.

Tshivhase also sounded a stern warning to those who are bent on seeing the project collapse through theft and vandalisation to stop such practices, as they are under the watchful eye of the community and will soon be behind bars.