[ . . .] After a 10-year legal battle, the Moletele have taken back the land from which they were evicted by members of the white minority nearly a century ago.
The area, a picturesque range at the foot of mountains near Hoedspruit in the country's northeast, is dotted with trees heavy with fruit.
"To us, we see it as our dignity has been restored," said Hezekiel Nkosi, the chairman of the Moletele Communal Property Association which pressed the claim.
"We are making sure that our people work on the farm and make it successful." [ . . . ]
Often, land transfers end in failure with new owners walking away from their investments after struggling to turn a profit.
The Moletele community itself came close to disaster after 1,615 families took over the area of 70,000 hectares (173,000 acres) that was found to be theirs in 2007. [ . . . ]
But because of a lack of cash, training and limited market access, the hopes of the Moletele quickly turned to despair.
"Farming was very difficult because we have to pay for inputs such as fertilisers or electricity. All costs -- but we didn't have money," recalls Nkosi.
"So we advertised for people who could assist in running the farm." [ . . . ]
And in a striking breakthrough for race relations in the country, their call was answered by white farmers.
The Moletele agreed to pay a percentage of the land's revenues over 20 years to the established local farmer in return for expertise.
Following the deal, the former landowners became the workers while the one-time labourers became the bosses.
And against the odds, the arrangement was a success.
"When we took over the farm, there was really nothing going on there, it was totally neglected," said farmer Duo Landman.
"What we did is we took our practices from our own farms and just implemented them. Now it's definitely profitable."
The Moleteles' venture has since benefited from their partners' know-how, their processing facilities and their extensive distribution networks.
Their lemons and mangoes are sold at home and abroad and helped the black-led enterprise to report its first profits.
"Here we have an example of successful land reform," said Pieter Scholtz, chief executive of the operation, Matuma Farms.
"Seventy percent of the land belongs to the people of the Moletele community," he added. [ . . . ]