Terry Leahy (2015 – first written 2010)
Below is the opening paragraphs for “A successful group project: Melani, Eastern Cape near Alice” by Terry Leahy.
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The project at this village in the Eastern Cape has been going since 1974 and the current chairman is the son of one of the original members. There are sixteen households involved out of a total village population of roughly 100 households. The field on which the project is established is a river flat. The project is to grow vegetables. Some of these are sold but most are consumed by the households that grow them. Each household has a “morgan” which is 0.9 hectare. When a member of the project dies, their holding in the project is passed on to another person in their family. What they grow are cabbages, carrots, spinach, butternut, potatoes and maize. They store potatoes, pumpkins and carrots for the dry season. Both men and women were on the site when we visited in the morning.
The history of this project is that the land was owned originally owned by a white farmer, Mrs Scott, and was a citrus orchard. When she passed on, the government gave the farm to this project. This project has not been established on land taken from the community, but on land given to the community by the government and taken from a white farmer. This is one of the reasons why the community as a whole does not resent members of the project for their usurpation of a community resource – as can happen where projects are established on community grazing or cropping land. The ownership of this land by the project is also sanctified by the long period of time during which the project has been operating.
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