Parliament, Thursday, 29 January 2026 – The Portfolio Committee on Agriculture has welcomed commitments made by the Eastern Provincial Department of Agriculture and the stakeholders involved in the Ncera Macadamia Farming project to revive the business, after it closed operations almost two years ago following operational and financial challenges.
Responding to the committee’s concerns about the failure of the project during an oversight visit to the province, the MEC for Agriculture, Ms Nonceba Kontsiwe, told the committee that the department will hold discussions with the beneficiary communities, the private partners of the project and the traditional council to discuss plans to revive the once-promising project.
The community, who are both partners and workers in the project, said they were also ready to return to work and also committed to protect the infrastructure of the project.
In welcoming the commitment to revive the business, in which government invested about R195 million, committee Chairperson Ms Dina Pule warned against investing more funds before resolving structural and governance issues. “We hope it is not going to be money first; you are going to ensure that all the boxes are ticked before the money comes. We want a good story out of Ncera, it was a very promising project,”
The committee also has concerns about the government spending too much time and money supporting one project when there are other projects that also required support.
“You can’t pump money on the same project for too long. You must move on to other community development projects. We welcome the willingness and commitment to resuscitate the project, clearly something didn’t go right, as the project was once up and running and now it is dead. When we have learnt a lesson, we need to change our approach,” the Chairperson added.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO AGRICULTURE, MS DINA PULE.
For media enquiries or interviews with the committee Chairperson, please contact:
Name: Sakhile Mokoena
Cell: 081 705 2130
E-mail: smokoena@parliament.gov.za
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