The once flourishing Tshivhase Tea Estate outside Thohoyandou in Limpopo is a shadow of its former self. The collapse happened despite government investing nearly R200 million since 2006.
Financial problems and dysfunctional equipment have halted tea harvesting for almost two years in a row.
The Tshivhase tea estate was once the economic heartbeat in the Vhembe district. With more than 1700 hectares of tea plantations, less than 20 hectares are being maintained and rehabilitated without any harvesting taking place.
The rest has been abandoned due to a lack of resources, including workers.
During its bloom, the tea estate employed more than 2000 workers; currently, it employs about 200 workers. The year’s lack of maintenance rendered vehicles, tractors, graders, and packaging machines useless and beset with mechanical faults.
With 40 years of employment at the tea estate, a former employer, Richard Thagwana, blames the Limpopo Economic Development Agency, LEDA, a government entity.
Thagwana says LEDA is not providing enough support. “So far, we are not producing at the moment because we don’t have harvesters, we don’t have maintenance money, the machinery is not maintained, the fleet is not roadworthy, everything here is shattered. And it pains me because I know the magnitude of this tea industry. Apart from black tea, we can even do another variety of tea, but LEDA is not doing diligence in this matter; they are always talking about densifying.”
The nearly 200 workers, who are still reporting for duty, are responsible for maintaining and rehabilitating a few hectares of the tea plantation to prevent overgrowing.
They expressed their frustration at the situation:
“The problem is that LEDA is not servicing our machines. We are getting paid, but we are doing nothing here. We need LEDA to service our machines and bring parts in order that we can pack tea and save the shop.”
“We are very few since LEDA took over. Now we have a problem because we don’t know if we will continue working. We want revitalization of the tea estate so that more will be employed.”
Head of Communication and Marketing at LEDA, Patrick Monkoe, says a task team is looking into de-certifying the business because tea is no longer a viable business. The government agency will abandon the tea plantation as it costs taxpayers R40 million a year.
“After we made an investment in the tea estate and after realizing that this investment is not basically giving us a return, we decided to create a task team to look into dis-certification of the business project, which came to a halt. Because tea is no longer profitable, we are losing almost R40 million annually. We want to abandon tea and come with decertified businesses.”
While the estate produces black tea, called Midi Tea, it is no longer available on supermarket shelves.
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