Troubled estates now Bhisho’s cup of tea

The Bshisho government will take over full responsibility for running the troubled Majola and Magwa tea estates, premier Phumulo Masualle said this week.

This comes after the Majola Trust agreed to hand over full powers to the provincial government to run the estate, while Magwa Corporation is busy consulting in order to follow suit.

The state has been battling to come up with a full rescue plan for the ailing projects which initially had the potential to produce world-class tea and change the lives of residents for the better.

Both projects were under different trusts, ownership of which made it difficult for the state to interfere in the operations without the approval of the trust, a buffer which resulted in millions of public money being pumped into the project for years without any positive spin-offs.

Since 2011, the Bhisho government has paid more than R135-million into the projects to help pay the more than 1000 workers who from time to time had been left without salaries.

Magwa alone received R14.4-million from the provincial government to pay its workers in the 2013-2014 financial year.

“With respect to Majola, the trust there has taken a resolution that the land should be given back to the provincial government. This solved a lot of problems there,” Masualle said.

“As far as Magwa goes, all the cases there have to do with communal property associations. The basis for the provincial government to intervene is to let all those things be sorted out.

“The provincial government will take full responsibility there,” Masualle said.

While the issue of ownership has been cleared up and an administrator appointed to run Magwa tea estate, for quite some time there was a big question as to whether tea was a viable option to sustain the estates.

Masualle said an investor had come forward and offered to plant avocados at Majola instead of tea. — zineg@dispatch.co.za