Department spokesperson Eddie Mohoebi said the Gauteng farm, given to beneficiary Veronica Moos, was taken back by the government as part of its "Use it or Lose it" Campaign.

"... we went back and found that no agricultural activity was happening on the farm and she [Moos] was not even living on it," he told Sapa.

"No farm must be allowed to lie vacant... it must be occupied and it must be productive."

The farm was acquired by government for R1.7-million and subsequently leased to Moos for R2000 per annum.

"We knew the condition of the farm when we bought it... it was farmable," he said.

Moos was given a further R200 000 infrastructural grant to do some electrical work and acquire equipment but when government inspected whether it was being used, it discovered that Moos had sub-leased it.

"One of the elements of land reform is the state has the right to terminate the lease if there is no productive farming on the land," Mohoebi said.

Moos, during a visit to the farm by Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana on Wednesday, told the SABC she was being unfairly evicted because the government did not give her enough funds to make the farm productive.

During the visit, the minister said government would take back at least five more farms in Gauteng, the Free State and the Eastern Cape, the broadcaster said.

A task team was traversing the country to evaluate farms allocated to black farmers to determine if they were productive.

"What we are doing is a process as part of monitoring and evaluating the performance of the land reform project," Mohoebi said.

"The minister does not derive any joy in taking the land, when the decision [is] taken, it's only after due process has been followed," he added.

The Gauteng provincial land reform team, the Kungweni Local Municipality and the provincial land affairs department were working on a plan to resuscitate the Yzerfontein farm.

"They will identify beneficiaries and they need to prepare it [the farm] sufficiently to make it farmable again," Mohoebi said.