Congratulations to the ANC. You can now buy as many farms as you want, for free. You don’t have to expropriate them, you just buy them at the market related price. You have shattered investor confidence in this country to such an extent, that today, NOT EVEN ONE buyer bid on either of our farms or the factory. What was supposed to be a public auction, was one big tea party with family, friends and neighbors who came around to give moral support.

A few months ago we listed our farms with a big auction company who advertised the sale far and wide. It was on Facebook and in the farmers weekly. It was on News24, and every other social media platform. We decided that a way to resolve our financial issues was to put our farms and powder factory on auction. The idea being that we can attract some serious buyer to the table, and hopefully sell a few of the farms or shares in the powder factory to pay down our debt. This debt burden has been hanging over our heads for way too long now and we had to act before the banks acted on our behalf.

The auctioneers and estate agents were flabbergasted that nobody came. I don’t know when that last happened at an auction in this area? What does this say about the state of our nation? It says that confidence in the agricultural sector and our country is probably at its all time low.

Ironically the fact that nobody bid on the auction may have been a blessing in disguise. It’s been a wake up call to the bank who would have been delighted if we achieved a crappy price, but where their debts were covered and we were left with nothing. Before the auction I thought that the worst case scenario would be that nobody came to the auction.

We now have a shot at a joint venture and there are possibly another few deals that may go ahead. The bottom line is that the bank won’t dream of having their own auction, as nobody wants to buy farms. This means that they may actually help us out like they should have done a few years ago when we had to slaughter all our cows.

I feel a helluva lot better now than I did before the auction. The future is still very uncertain, but there’s a light shining through the haze. Whatever happens from here, nobody can say that we didn’t try. Maybe one day we will look back on this time and remember all the valuable lessons we have learned.

Thanks to all our friends and family who came today to give moral support.