Dear Portfolio Committee on Agriculture,

I am writing this letter to the Committee as to seek assistance in resolving a Section 19.2 Dispute between Richtersveld CPA Members and the Richtersveld CPA Committee.

This letter is written as a last resolve as the Concerned members of the Richtersveld CPA has now exhausted all internal mechanisms and feels that we got to a dead end . The official dispute in terms of the CPA Act requires that the Office of the Director General intervene and appoint an Independant mediator to resolve the impas..

The Richtersveld CPA was placed for the 3 time under Administration and the 3 year term of the last administrator ended around 2021 . At the end of the term the Administrator was supposed to facilitate an election of new Committee members and the election took place supposedly under the watch of an independent body SIEFSA to make sure elections is fair , but as it turned out elections were not fair and objections were raised .

Despite off the objections a Executive Committee was established which was from the election in 2021 to date not Certified by the Director General as prescribed by the Regulations and the CPA Act.

The appointed Committee operated illegal and entered into Contracts , committed to Financial expenditure of millions of rand and signed of on the alienation of Community assets , this prompted Concerned Members of the RCPA to declare a dispute with the department who registered the dispute on 08 Sept 2023 as an official dispute , an intervention meeting between the two parties was held on 22nd January 2024 where the Committee walked out of the meeting , a resolution was taken to activate the Section 10 Request for Assistance , The Application was submitted to the Northern Cape Provincial Office and Escalated to the office of the National Director General on 07 February 2024..

After many letters and lots of attempts to the Provincial Office and the Director Generals Office to appoint and Independent Mediator .. to date nothing has transpired ..

Many emails later to date still nothing was resolved and in the meantime the RV Committee continues to operate illegally..

Hope that this Committee can assist to have this matter resolved .