PHA, the Breadbasket of Cape Town for GMO-Free Food!
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Food & Farming for the Cape Flats
Mayor’s decision: an attack on democratic process and on the people of Cape Town On Wednesday 31 July 2013 the entire DA voted for the redrawing of the urban edge to allow productive farmlands in the Philippi Horticultural Area- PHA- to be put to houses. The DA Executive Mayor of Cape Town Patricia de Lille said in justifying her party’s position that “the PHA don’t feed the poor. Since when do the poor eat lettuce and go to Woolworths?” But according to the city’s own study commissioned in 2009 “on how to plan for and manage the PHA in the future”, Philippi provides a complete vegetable basket”. One hundred thousand tonnes of vegetables produced in the PHA per annum is sold “via retail chains (70%) and farm sales to restaurants, shops, hawkers and fresh produce markets (30% of total value)”(PHA Rapid Review Study, 2009) In another respected study done by AFSUN in 2012, PHA: A City Asset or Potential Development Node? it was found “that the food produced in the area (PHA) formed a vital part of local, low-income food systems; and that the area was “of critical importance”. The PHA is the hidden jewel of Cape Town and the heart of the Cape Flats for well over 200 years. The commercial farmers in the PHA is organised under the oldest agricultural union in the South Africa, Die Kaapse Vlakte Landbou Vereneging. Its commercial farmers are continuing to produce the city’s food despite little or no support from city and provincial authorities. Their calls for help around crime, rezonings, illegal dumping and improved infrastructure in the area fall on deaf ears. Our farmers should be treated with more appreciation. The PHA is crucially a space which holds the hopes and dreams of emerging farmers. Land to farm commercially is a major need with emerging farmers and the PHA is ideally placed with the best water, soil and micro-climate for farming. But the city and province do nothing to help new farmers. Instead they allow valuable agricultural land to be sold off to developers and redraw the urban edge every other year to suit the needs of developers. This way the province has redrawn the urban edge to allow the 472ha Rapicorp 122 development to go ahead and now the city uses this argument to allow another 300ha to be used for “housing for the poor”. Both the Rapicorp 122 and MSP developments must not be allowed to go ahead. The Rapicorp 122 land must be used to place black emerging farmers who are land hungry and who want to make a commercial success of their farming. The MSP land and any other farmlands for sale must be retained for food production and the urban edge must be protected at all costs. If a farmer in the PHA wants to sell, the Department of Rural Development and Land Affairs I’m sure will buy their land. The local community’s spatial design plan the PHA Vision Plan makes marginal agricultural land available for housing in the northern and western parts of the PHA. Some 800ha is available for development here. But this land is not the best for agriculture as the water quality is poor. Farmer in this area has been trying for years to rezone this land for non-farming purposes. The DA proportional rep for the PHA George March said in council the PHA is overrun by informal settlements and that we need to build houses for them. The local community’s PHA Vision Plan for the area clearly outlines the needs of the informal settlement communities. The city has neglected the plight of informal settlement and farmworkers. It’s a disgrace to offer the poor in the PHA houses when you actually just offering them a tap and a toilet where they live. The PHA Vision Plan uses design to secure the core horticultural area from crime and environmental degradation and seeks to protect farmers and farming operations. This plan was developed in a democratic way with input from all the major roleplayers in the PHA. The plan recognised that the PHA is a contested space and it had to be protected from vested interests and secure its historic role as providing food for the city. The PHA Vision Plan was presented to the mayor and MEC Bredell in 2012 by the local civic organisation the Schaapkraal Civic and Environmental Association. The PHA is a valuable space for food security and urban agriculture. It is the hidden jewel of Cape Town. A UN Food and Agriculture Organisation report in 2013 noted “as urbanization accelerates in sub-Saharan Africa, many countries are seeking to develop their commercial horticulture sectors to ensure urban food security. Often the first step is to protect long established small-scale market gardens” (such as the PHA). The PHA offers to boost the supply of fresh vegetables for all the people of Cape Town- all year round. It offers to improve the access to good food for the poor through a new farm to plate model. And crucially it offers small scale emerging farmers a chance to make a commercially viable business out of farming. While the mayor may not fully understand the implications of her decision to redraw the urban edge, it has now resulted in putting the PHA firmly on the radar of the people of Cape Town. Issued by the PHA for Food & Farming Campaign, 1 August 2013 …read more
