Late last year I decided to exit government — I knew that one of the gaps that existed in the land and agriculture sector was a mechanism to bring together the public and private sectors. Working at Bigen where I helped establish an agricultural division, and being part of the team that is driving the establishment of the South African Agricultural Development Agency, has provided me an opportunity to develop innovative models for sustainable partnerships that can help us transform this sector.

For Phoenix-raised Leona Archary, “lift as you rise” is a motto she’s brought to her work in land, agriculture and rural development. Archary is the business manager of agriculture at Bigen Group. She has spent the past 27 years working in various roles at the department of rural development and land reform, and now hopes to be a bridge between the public and private sectors.

With a wealth of experience in land reform and rural development policy-making and fieldwork (her Master’s research was into sustainability of land reform programmes in Mpumalanga), Archary is solutions-driven and sensitive to the various issues at stake.

“When I started at the department of land affairs in Nelspruit in 1997, it was the first time I had even been away from KwaZulu-Natal. I did not fully understand the emotional attachment to land or the deep hurt that had been caused by dispossession of land, but as I daily encountered the stories of people who had been victims of the dispossession, I realised that this was what I wanted to do… I wanted to be a part of restoring what had been lost and building a new South Africa,” she says.

Archary brings expertise and empathy to her work, and sees what she does as part of broader nation-building and the creation of a more equitable South Africa for all.

“There is so much to be done and I really believe that we are now at a point in our country where we have to take hands, we have to focus on doing what is right, we have to develop mechanisms that address the land question in a manner that is sustainable and addresses the injustices of the past,” she says.
— Youlendree Appasamy

LinkedIn: @leona-archary