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H
enry Ford, the American industrialist who founded the
Ford Motor Company, said, ‘Coming together is a beginn-
ing; keeping together is progress, but working together
is success.’ With a shared passion for rural development,
Grain SA and Mrs Leona Archary, acting director-general of the
Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR), are
definitely a winning combination.
Archary, the deputy director-general, took over the DG duties from
Mr Mduduzi Shabane in December last year. Her motto in life is
that nothing is impossible. ‘If there is something you want to do,
you will be able to do it if you put your mind to it. If you keep putting
your own obstacles before you, you won’t achieve anything,’ says
this positive mother of two university students. And her mind is set
on diminishing inequality and poverty.
She hails from humble beginnings. Raised in KwaZulu-Natal by a
single mom, who worked as a machinist for a designer wear com-
pany, she completed her schooling and tertiary studies in Durban.
She studied at the University of KwaZulu-Natal towards a BCom
degree and then started working at the Department of Education in
KwaZulu-Natal in 1991.
Archary soon realised that she needed something more challeng-
ing and applied for a position at the Department of Land Reform
in Mpumalanga. With her husband of five years, she relocated to
Nelspruit at the end of 1996 where she was appointed as a senior
administrative officer supporting the different components of the
department in terms of the legislative framework and submissions
that had to be prepared.
Labour tenancy later also became part of her portfolio. She was pro-
moted to director within three years and was eventually appointed
as one of the chief directors, heading the province of Mpumalanga
regarding land reform.
Career and passion come together at
the DRDLR
Although she had no previous exposure to agriculture when
she joined the Department of Land Reform, she was engag-
ing with producers more frequently as Mpumalanga was
a province which was greatly affected by issues of farm
tenancy.
She recalls, ‘The peoples’ stories touched my heart and
land reform became a passion of mine.’
In further studies for her Master’s Degree in Manage-
ment at the University of the Witwatersrand (which
she obtained in 2012) this very passion led her to
write a dissertation on land reform. Entitled, ‘Sus-
tainable land reform in the Ehlanzeni District,
Mpumalanga’ her thesis was written to further
understand the needs and dynamics of the rural
communal areas.
‘When I wrote it, there was a lot of negativity
about the land reform transfers. By transferring
land which is not productive, we are influencing
the whole agricultural industry. When I did my
dissertation, I wanted to see how one can de-
velop sustainable models for land reform,’ she
discusses this very relevant topic.
Some of the sustainable programmes she pro-
posed at that stage were implemented by the
department. She believes that her dissertation
provided a deeper understanding of the different
factors impacting on the sustainability of the land
redistribution programme, like the importance of
training and skills development, as well as part-
nerships between the private and public sector.
Land reform:
’
Government can’t do it alone
‘
RELEVANT
Profile
– Leona Archary, acting DG of the DRDLR
LOUISE KUNZ,
SA Graan/Grain
contributor
For Leona Archary, acting DG of the
Department of Rural Development and
Land Reform, it is important to know
that her contribution has changed a
person’s life for the better.
Maart 2017
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