The overall winners were in the category of Project best on implementing Landcare Principles.

Pictured in the front are the farmers from the winning project Saandraai Aarbeidsgenoot together with Mrs J. Maisela (Chief Director -Agricultural Services) and Mr T. Sibhono (Director -Corporate Services) from the Department of Agriculture and Land Reform Northern Cape.

Below is a short narrative on the history of the Blocuso Trust.

PRIMARY NARRATOR: MR. PIET NEL
4TH GENERATION DESCENDENT OF THE ORIGINAL FARM BLOEMSMOND, HIS GREAT-GRANDFATHER PIET BEUKES CURRENT CHAIPERSON OF THE BLOCUSO TRUST
TEL: 054 491 1060 CELL: 079 806 0732.

NARRATED TO HIS SON: WILLY NELL
09 JUNE 2008

In 1876 the then Queen of England, Queen Victoria, awarded the farms Bloemsmond, Curriescamp and Soverby to Baster men who fought on the side of England to secure the Gordonia area for the British Empire in its colonization of Southern Africa. Bloemsmond was awarded to Piet Beukes, Curriscamp to Jan Diergaard and Soverby to Hendrik Swartz.

Piet  Beukes had four sons, Coenraad, Pieter, Gideon and Hendrik, He divided Bloemsmond in four smaller farms, one for each of his sons before he passed away. During the First World War Three the sons, Coenraad, Gideon and Hendrik joined the army. Pieter remained and established a thriving cattle enterprise on his part of the farm Bloemsmond. After the war the three brothers squandered their heritage and soon sold their farms to Jewish traders. They left thereafter. Curriescamp and Soverby were also sold to white land-owners, a Liebenberg and a Biggs.

In 1923 white irrigation farmers build a canal to have a controlled supply of water to their lands. They asked Pieter Beukes for permission for the canal to cross his farm. Pieter was not really interested in the canal since he was a cattle farmer that had free access to the Orange River bordering his land. He did not show an interest in irrigation farming. Nevertheless, the white farmers offered Pieter 10 years of free water usage of the canal as reward for his permission to let the canal cross his land.

The great drought of 1933, also known as the Great Depression, hit Pieter very hard just as his 10 years of free canal water expired. His cattle herd shrank due to the drought. On top of that, the white farmers charged him £300 for the Right to use the
to use the sustainable water source provided by the canal. Pieter traveled for six months through the country to try and raise a loan to help him through the bitter times. He was unsuccessful. In his travels he managed to obtain a portable school building from the government instead and erected it on Bloemsmond. While he was away Jewish shopkeepers, the brothers cohen, wrote up all of his relatives’ debts and kept him responsible for it as the farm owner in an effort to extort his land from him. Pieter refused to sign away the land and tried again to raise a loan.
In that time the Reverend Saul Damon from the independent church, which was the colored arm of thr Congregational Union of South Africa, later the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa, was in Upington to serve the congregation on a part-time basis from 1931-1933. During that time Pieter Beukes, a committed member of the church, made contact with Rev Damon about his financial predicament. Rev Damon promised Pieter that he will help him in his hour of need. This gave Pieter to courage to hold on to his land and capitulate to the brothers cohen. Rev Damon raised a loan from a certain Dr Anderson of Congregation Union of South Africa, the mother church of the independent Church, to buy land on which to establish a self-sustained farming settlement. In the name of the church Rev. Damon bought Bloemsmond from Pieter Beukes who could then pay for the water rights to the canal and settle his relatives debts’ to the brothers cohen. Because his part-time ministry was to be converted into a full time ministry from 1935, Rev Damon also used the funds to buy Curriescamp and Soverby from the white owners. The independent Church congregation of Upington, which later became the congregational church of Upington, so became the owner of Bloemsmond, Curriescamp and Soverby. The ideal of self-sustained farming settlements owned by the church was reached by Rev Saul Damon. Families had to pay rent to the church for the right to remain on the farms. Very little services were rendered to the tenants. Discontent with Congregational Church’s management of the farms steadily grew.

Government officials Jessi Strauss and Stef Koopman, visited the farms in 1997 with a government offer to provide Reconstruction and Development Programme Funds of R16 000 per household for the upgrade of homes. Piet Nel [narrator] told them that the inhabitants were not the owners of the land but mere tenants. He started a move by the tenants to rather pool their R16 000-allocations and then make an offer to purchase the farms from the church. In this process the communities were assisted by various consultants and by the government. The communities managed to raise an amount of 7.3 million from the RDP funds. The congregation Church settled for and offer of R1.5 million for the three farms.

The communities established the Blocuso Trust [ Blo of Bloemsmond, Cu of Curriescamp and So  of Soverby] to ensure the accountable spending of the rest of the money. A large sum, more than R4 million, went to the lawyers and consultants for their services rendered. Closer co-operation with the Kai! Garib municipality ensued. At a cost of R1.5 million portable water provisions was one of the first projects successfully undertaken. Electricity was also brought to the farms.

In all these and other projects the Blocuso Trust favors a partnership approach whereby the trust provides part of the funding and a partner or partners the rest. A large irrigation vineyard project is currently underway. Full financial `details of this project is available at the Blocuso office and the Kai! Garib municipality.

© Piet Nel, 2008-06-09, Bloemsmond
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The contents of this document may be used with due reference to the copyright holder.