Hon members, I would like to make an announcement. Due to travel arrangements, I am going to reshuffle the list. Hon Magadla will now be number six and hon Nahara will now be number four.
Hon Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, hon Minister, hon members as well as the officials from the departments, I want to start my speech this afternoon with a startling statistic, taken from the 2009 General Household Survey, which estimates that 20% of households in South Africa have inadequate or severely inadequate access to food. Inadequate access to food is most critical in the Free State, followed by KwaZulu- Natal, the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga. Minister, the question this House has for you is: How will your department address this scourge, given the combined effects of climate change, decreasing natural resources and increasing food prices?
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has a huge burden to bear. As I present the views of the Select Committee on Land and Environmental Affairs on the Budget Vote for the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, I want to illustrate to the House the mammoth task this department has in carrying out its mandate.
Agriculture is close to all our hearts - from tilling the soil and maintaining fish stocks to ensuring food security for all. This is their primary role for all our people in both the rural and urban areas. The department has great potential to assist our government in the fight against poverty, as the sectors involved - agriculture, forestry and fisheries - play a central and critical role in providing employment, producing food for the country and generating income, and in the subsistence of the rural poor. The role that agriculture and fisheries play in food security and forestry in providing goods and services to the poor makes them a very important sector in a developing country like South Africa.
These three sectors have the potential to revive the rural economy of South Africa. With the appropriate policies and financial support, they can make a significant contribution in addressing our country's current socioeconomic challenges. As a result, these sectors have been highlighted by our government as priority areas for development, since they can create much-needed jobs.
President Zuma's 2011 state of the nation address emphasises the creation of decent jobs. This area is also one of the main focal points of the country's New Growth Path, NGP, in which the agricultural value chain is identified as one of the key job drivers. Therefore, the New Growth Path's aim for agriculture is to create 500 000 jobs in agriculture and agro- processing by 2020; to place 300 000 households in smallholder schemes by 2015; and to upgrade employment in commercial farms.
It is envisaged that key integrated policies will be developed to link smallholding schemes to land reform and provide integrated support to both economical and social programmes, to address high input costs, support farm workers' organisations and to support growth in the commercial sector by addressing price fluctuations in maize and wheat, which are staple foods for many households in our country.
The Industrial Policy Action Plan, Ipap, has identified agro-processing as an area of development. Therefore the department's aim, to develop the agro- processing strategy by June 2011 and create the capacity to implement the strategy through provincial and local role-players, is encouraged. The "one product, one district" approach to ensure competitiveness and economies of scale is fully supported by the Select Committee on Land and Environmental Affairs.
Our government's commitment to ensure food security and increase agricultural production that is accessible to all South Africans is clear in the R4,1719 billion allocation to the department for the 2011-12 financial year.
The department currently administers three conditional agricultural grants to provinces, namely the Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme, Casp, Ilima/Letsema and LandCare Programme grants. In this financial year, the Casp grant is allocated R1 billion. This grant, which aims to provide support to newly established and emerging farmers, also includes the extension recovery plan, which focuses on improving extension services through training and provision of equipment for extension officers. This is most needed for the sector. The departmental outputs for Casp are mainly based on infrastructure provision, namely fencing, livestock and poultry structures, water systems and tractors. This is a serious concern, as support that is required for emerging farmers goes beyond just infrastructure provision. Furthermore, our experience when conducting oversight is that much of these assets are either stolen or sold off and the funds are wasted. Our caution to you, Minister, is to ensure that monitoring and evaluation tools are in place when releasing public funds.
Given the provided infrastructure, the department still has the challenge to improve and increase agricultural production, provide post-settlement support, build capacity and improve farmers' skills, including through agribusiness training, improve information systems for planning and decision-making, as well as improve farm income through job creation and food security.
These are all desired outcomes of Casp but they can never be met by providing infrastructure alone. The department measures performance by the number of projects and/or the number of beneficiaries involved in those projects, but there are other benefits that have accrued to communities that are also not fully documented.
Secondly, the LandCare programme, which aims to optimise productivity and the sustainable use of natural resources, is allocated a grant of R57 million for 2011-12. In order to ensure the optimal use of financial resources and to avoid duplication, there is a need for the integration of the LandCare programme with other government programmes with similar objectives in order for it to be effective, so that our communities can be sustainable and vibrant.
The R400 million that is allocated to Ilima/Letsema is welcomed, but the details of what type of projects this money will be spent on are not clear. The selection criteria for the projects need to be aligned to the communities' needs.
In addressing the priority that government attaches to rural development, the department has a target of increasing the number of smallholder farmers by 2014 through an initial assessment programme, pre-settlement practical training and post-settlement support through extension service. This is to be applauded but the committee is more concerned with the progress made in this regard from last year.
For the fisheries sector, the planned small-scale fisheries policy, which is currently under way, is a great initiative to address transformation. The marginalised fishing communities have been left out for far too long and the department's attempt to let all South Africans share in our natural resources is greatly appreciated. The lesson you have learnt during the successful implementation of the Forest Charter will be helpful in addressing the Fisheries Sector Charter.
We seek some clarity on the issue of the decrease in budget allocation to the forestry programme. If you take inflation into account, although your regulatory function has increased in this area, the amounts allocated for forestry oversight and the duration have decreased.
In conclusion, I would like to assert that the department has a large task ahead but it is in capable hands with the leadership of the hon Minister Joemat-Pettersson who, we know, will be able to deliver. Therefore, on behalf of the Select Committee on Land and Environmental Affairs, I would like to support Budget Vote 26 on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Thank you. [Applause.]
To all seated in our gallery, who are stakeholders of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, welcome to the Chamber. Thank you. [Applause.]
Madam Deputy Chairperson, I rise again on a point of order regarding a quorum in the House. I am raising this again because I am very serious when we debate things. We are 26 in the House. For instance, Gauteng has only three members present and Free State has four. We can't entertain such an important Vote when we do not have a quorum. Please, Chairperson, it's a serious matter and I am taking it very seriously.
Hon Bloem, may I remind you - and I am asking everybody in this House to be very attentive - that a ruling was made on this, and I'm not going to entertain it any further. Thank you.
Chairperson, Minister Joemat-Pettersson, members of the NCOP and friends of Agriculture, I'm sure that most, if not all of you, will agree with me that the summer of 2010-11 will be remembered for all the things that went wrong for the agricultural sector. It was as if Mother Nature lost her temper with South Africa. While flooding took place in one area, there was a pressing drought somewhere else. We were confronted with almost all the dreaded animal diseases known to us. All of these calamities were thrown at us in one season.
So let me begin with a salute to the people who till the land in South Africa. We all know that South Africa is not for sissies. We all know that farming is not for sissies. I have the utmost respect for the farmers and the farm workers of South Africa, who keep on providing our nation with food and fibre, come rain or shine.
As representatives of the South African government, we have a very important supportive role to play regarding the farmers of South Africa. As government officials, each and every one of us here today needs to remind himself or herself of the critical importance of affordable, safe and available food to our society. I want to state today that if we think service delivery protests are disrupting our nation, we do not want to see our nation out on the streets because it is hungry - hungry because there is no affordable food to buy.
I want to address three issues today, each of which I believe to be of critical importance to our core mandate of supporting food security. These issues are research, veterinary services and the protection of agricultural land.
In the Western Cape we have increased our spending on research significantly and we will be investing more than R100 million annually on agricultural research within the next three years. Without research we cannot compete internationally. The previous food price crisis in 2008 showed us that it was dangerous to assume that food will always be available on the international markets. Once countries worldwide stop exporting in order to meet their local demand, it is a situation of each country for itself. South Africa should always be aware of these possible risks. Research is the foundation on the basis of which we have to create our own food security. We need new cultivars and better production methods. We need to understand climate change. We need new crops that will be suited to our changing climate. We need to save water.
The past few months have highlighted the important role veterinary services play in South Africa. Vets play a critical role in maintaining food security and food safety. Vets, together with health services, are directly responsible for our personal health and safety. This fact was dramatically illustrated with the deadly Rift Valley Fever outbreak in 2010, where an animal disease also led to human fatalities. Vets also allow our farmers to run businesses and employ thousands of people, thus supporting millions of people in our country. When a disease strikes one of our animal industries, the negative effects are felt far and wide.
Allow me to illustrate this point with the ongoing crisis in the ostrich industry. This R1,2 billion industry is currently faced with an export ban due to the detection of the H5N2 virus on farms in the Oudtshoorn area. Of our ostrich meat, 90% is destined for export. This industry employs 20 000 people in the greater Oudtshoorn area. When downstream and upstream linkages are considered, more than 50 000 employment opportunities are affected. This industry cannot operate or survive without the regulatory support from government. This is not only about the farmers; it is also about the farm workers, truck drivers, abattoir workers and factory workers. This crisis affects each and everyone who supports a family with wages earned from ostriches. If this industry were to collapse in Oudtshoorn, a total rural economy is at risk of collapsing, with negative ripple effects throughout the country.
It is during a crisis that one discovers the interconnectedness in agriculture. For example, one of our ostrich abattoirs processes game meat during the winter months as a strategy to offset the off season for ostrich meat. This strategy allows the abattoir to provide year-round employment for more people. But now there is also a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, which also resulted in this industry grinding to a halt. Another example is that of about 69 ostrich empowerment farmers in the Eastern Cape, who are making a living by raising ostrich chicks. Due to the quarantine measures currently in place in Oudtshoorn, they will not be able to receive birds, so their chances of survival are also being threatened.
As government there are certain basic things we have to do. We have to protect our ability to be food secure. Even an industry such as the ostrich industry contributes to food security, as it pays wages that can buy food. In order to protect our national food security, we have to do research. We have to provide the veterinary services associated with the livestock industries. We have to manage and promote international protocols and relationships to create a platform from which our farmers can do business and create employment.
Regarding the H5N2 virus outbreak in Oudtshoorn, I want to go on record today and thank Minister Joemat-Pettersson for the excellent co-operation and support we have so far received. This includes compensation paid to farmers for culled birds, co-operation with state veterinarians who came to assist us in Oudtshoorn, and co-operation in negotiations with the European Union.
There are still many challenges ahead. We are in the process of trying to have the entire ostrich industry declared a disaster. Due to the far- reaching effects of the export ban, compensation to individual farmers is only the tip of the iceberg. We need to find ways in which to assist all the people who are at risk of losing their source of income. We need to consider measures ranging from food parcels, right through to low-interest loans to assist the entire industry in this difficult time.
I want to propose that we accredit private laboratories and their facilities in order to assist us in processing disease test results. At the moment it is taking too long to get the end product. This will allow us to respond much faster to such disasters.
It is also our responsibility to protect agricultural land. We need agricultural land to be productively utilised in order to promote national food security. I am therefore convinced and concerned that the current Draft Spatial Development and Land Use Management Bill hold problems for us. The protection and management of agricultural land has always been the responsibility of the Department of Agriculture, and this is as it should be. If the Bill is to be passed, an important part of this function will be taken over by land use regulators at a local level. I am concerned that these regulators may not have the necessary focus or expertise to protect agricultural land for food production purposes. We, as the provincial and national departments of agriculture, should play the leading role in the determination of the use of land which is currently used for agricultural purposes, as well as any proposed change in land use.
In conclusion, the difficult times we are facing can be overcome through simple hard work and dedication from our officials and politicians. We want to make a success of South Africa. Our responsibility as servants of agriculture is to create the environment for food production to flourish. Thank you. [Time expired.]
Ms F NAHARA (KwaZulu-Natal): Chairperson, hon Minister, other Ministers and MECs present in this House, thank you for giving me this opportunity to participate in this debate on Vote No 26 a day before the historical date of the 16 June uprising. We salute and honour those young people of 1976 who took a stance against the apartheid regime. This was the beginning of the changing political tide that led to the freedom we are enjoying today.
Having said this, it is common knowledge to all of us in this House that agriculture in the past was designed for very few people.
Angifuni ukubasho ukuthi ngobani. [I do not want to say who they are.]
The majority of our people remained servants of these few people. For that reason, whatever efforts are made by this department, people see corruption and nothing else. They don't appreciate the good parts. However, let me congratulate the Minister on her efforts, on her speech and all the figures she has given us. I cannot repeat them. I also want to commend her for the efforts that were made continuously to ensure that our small farmers get the necessary support through the mechanisation programme.
Sihlalo, iNdlu yakho nje ayikuvume ngomoya omuhle wesonto ukuthi lapho kuphethe khona imbokodo imisebenzi iyabonakala. [Chairperson, your House must just acknowledge that work gets done where there are women in charge.]
Together with the department the portfolio committee in KwaZulu-Natal has played a significant role in motivating our communities to participate in the food security programme that is widely known as "one home, one garden". Mrs Johnson went further and encouraged schools to have "one school, one garden", with the intention of using it for nutrition in the school. Basically, this programme is intended to create the culture among our people of growing their own vegetables or producing their own food.
This year the department of agriculture in KwaZulu-Natal will be hosting the second Young Farmer's Summit this month as part of the commemoration of Youth Month. The portfolio committee has good relationships with the department and the MEC. We attend all service delivery events and we also support the department in many other programmes that they formulate. I am happy to say in this House that the department is in line with the priorities of eradicating hunger and poverty set out by His Excellency the President.
Before I sit down I would really like to say intuthuko kulo Mnyango asiyibuzi, siyibona ngamehlo. Ngiyabonga. [development in this department is not questionable, as it is visible enough. Thank you.]
Chairperson, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, and our MEC, Mr Van Rensburg - I don't know if there is any other MEC who takes agriculture very seriously - hon members, and the public, I wish to start off by thanking the department and the officials concerned for their various presentations to our committee.
During the election period the DA had a stand at the Bloemfontein show and - this is true - diagonally opposite was the exhibition of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The department's officials were very professional, but when they saw how many people were interested in our table, they immediately wanted to join the DA. [Interjections.]
Forgive me if I regress a bit here regarding what has been stated in the department's budget for 2011-12, which is R4,7 billion. The allocations are as follows: agricultural production, health and food safety get R890 million; food security and agrarian reform get R1,2 billion; trade promotion and market access get R190 million; the forestry branch gets R770 million, and fisheries get R324 million. A target was also set to create some 500 000 new job opportunities in the agricultural and agro- processing sectors by the year 2020.
Some 80% of South Africa's food is produced by 20% of the country's commercial farmers. The Minister recently stated in Parliament that:
Daar is geen massa-eksodus van wit boere na elders in Afrika nie, maar as wit boere wil gaan boer, moet ons dit vir hulle moontlik maak. [There is no mass exodus of white farmers to other places in Africa, but should white farmers wish to farm there, we should enable them to do so.]
Presumably this must be done to make place for black farmers who are getting impatient with regard to land reform. The Deputy President of AgriSA stated that in 1994 there were some 120 000 commercial farmers in South Africa, of whom only 37 000 remain. Meanwhile the remaining farmers are still waiting for the long-awaited Green Paper regarding land reform, while established farmers have shown their willingness to help emerging farmers. This uncertainty will not help with the provision of food security, Minister, particularly given the comments made by Mr Malema, and I have to use him again, who states that all whites - one of our hon members recently said that we were pink, or pink/white - are criminals and that farms must be seized Zimbabwe-style.
Ander aspekte wat beleggingsvertroue negatief benvloed is, onder meer, uitsprake van onteiening wat oor boere se koppe hang, stygende misdaad in landelike gebiede, besoedelingsgevaar van mynbou en rioolwater, en verswakkende infrastruktuur. Dit is net 'n paar voorbeelde. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Other aspects that influence investor confidence negatively are, amongst others, statements about expropriation that are hanging over farmers' heads, an increase in crime in rural areas, the risk of pollution from mining activities and sewerage water, and a weakening infrastructure. These are but a few examples.]
Chairperson, our continent's population will increase from 800 million in 2000 to 1,4 billion by 2030. By 2025, some 23% of the world's population aged between 0 and 25 years will be living in sub-Saharan Africa. It is forecast that due to global climate change and the ever-increasing world population, food and water shortages will occur in the not-too-distant future. Efficient and productive farmers are in big demand around the world. We in South Africa must look after our farming community. The Minister recently stated that farming must be based on business principles and not be regarded as a charitable institution. The Minister then continued by saying that after 16 years farmers could no longer be considered emerging and were now expected to produce a surplus and not just exist as subsistence farmers. The DA agrees with this. Agricultural reform must be well planned, efficiently managed and adequately funded.
The SA Red Meat Producers Organisation wanted to take legal action against the department due to foot-and-mouth disease in northern KwaZulu-Natal, which the government had been warned about several months before the February outbreak. South Africa's livestock and farmers are reeling from a host of diseases, as we have heard, that are crippling exports, threatening jobs and even affecting the horse-racing industry. There have been temporary bans on the export of racehorses, poultry products and ostrich meat.
Farmers say the problem is due to the failing state of agricultural infrastructure, such as veterinary and quarantine services. The re- establishment of the red-line fence on the Mozambique border, for example, which could adequately control livestock in high-risk areas; a shortage of state vets and a major decline in the investment in biological products such as vaccines contribute to the problems.
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries contributed 2,3% to the GDP in 2009. However, this contribution has been declining annually. During the past five years, food imports to South Africa have doubled to approximately R25 billion. South Africa now imports some 800 000 chickens every day - last year it was 250 000 tons, to be exact - 600 000 tons of edible oil and 50% of domestic wheat. This means that half of every loaf of bread we eat is made up of imported wheat. Some 90% of rooibos tea is exported in bulk and processed overseas. This could create far more work opportunities here locally.
Given the shocking levels of mismanagement with regard to the fisheries branch, we believe that the only way to arrest the terminal decline of fisheries management in our country is - and the hon MEC, Mr van Rensburg, would like this - to invoke section 78 of the Marine Living Resources Act. This Act makes explicit provision for the assignment of ministerial powers and functions to provincial MECs. While the department states that fishing is a national competency, at least 80% of all commercial fisheries activity occurs in the Western Cape. Rather let the DA-led provincial administration take over before there is a total collapse of our fisheries. Thank you. [Interjections.]
Chairperson, hon Minister, hon members and distinguished guests, the debate on Budget Vote No 26: Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries takes place only days before the 56th anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom Charter. The Freedom Charter was adopted in Kliptown on 26 June 1955 - and not 1956. The Freedom Charter contains the fundamental perspective of the vast majority of the people of South Africa of the kind of liberation that all of us are fighting for. Hence it is not merely the Freedom Charter of the ANC and its allies. Rather, it is the charter of the people of South Africa for liberation.
Hon members, in 1980 Comrade Oliver Tambo explained the meaning of the Freedom Charter in an effort to show its relevance to the struggle for the liberation of our people. He also wanted to reaffirm the ANC's commitment to the struggle and its determination to bring in the kind of social order in South Africa that the then oppressed majority considered just and equitable. The policies of the ANC are very good, hon members, in as much as some things that were said by our leaders then are still relevant today and will be relevant to generations to come. Today we have achieved the just and equitable order that Comrade Oliver Tambo talked about, but the struggle is far from over. This is because we have not yet achieved a better life for all of our people. We still have unacceptable levels of poverty and unemployment ezenzizwa ke ngabantu esihlala nabo kwalapha epalamente [which were caused by the people who are with us here in Parliament].
Our select committee received briefings on 24 May and 14 June respectively from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on its policy and Budget Vote. This provided an opportunity for the committee to critique extensively the strategic plan of the department in relation to the policy and Budget Vote. This meeting also enabled the committee to determine its recommendation to the House in as far as the budget of the department was concerned, notwithstanding the fact that the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act empowers Parliament to amend money Bills.
From the briefing meeting with the department, the committee recommended that the department needed to put in place systems and processes that had to ensure that land reform facilitated the development of rural economies through the transformation of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, in order to ensure food security and the elimination of abject poverty.
Education and training for every farmer is the key to success, and we want to urge the department to equip and empower farmers with skills, knowledge and the ability to apply the latest technology in the agricultural sector. The shortage of emerging entrepreneurs should be addressed through a conscious small, medium and micro enterprise, SMME, development programme in the agricultural sector. Successful SMMEs can make meaningful inroads as far as job creation and business innovation is concerned. The challenges that face SMMEs in the primary and secondary agricultural industries include knowledge, skills and information management that can equip them to become innovative and effective in the running of their business.
The Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme, Casp, is a conditional grant aimed at assisting farmers, particularly those who acquired land through the restitution programme. Underspending is a threat to Casp, and is an impediment to effective and efficient service delivery. The department should prioritise Casp's programmes, as they provide infrastructural and agricultural input support to farmers. Further long- term measures are required to be implemented by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to ensure that the budget for Casp is monitored in all provinces, in order to avoid underspending. In this way, the department will be able to further support black commercial farmers.
The New Growth Path has called on government departments to respond to the job creation call. Based on this important clarion call, we appeal to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to respond diligently to the call to create jobs in the agricultural sector. In his state of the nation address this year, President Jacob Zuma stated that the agricultural sector should be boosted by infrastructural development in order to be assisted to create jobs. The department is therefore expected to employ many people in order to make a meaningful contribution to the country's gross domestic product. We have noted that the agricultural sector still battles with the challenge of scarce skills and to find certain specialised skills.
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries should make strides on the challenge of unemployment. We call upon the department to assist black emerging farmers to benefit from the Agri-FoodBank, a partnership which is geared towards assisting subsistence farmers to gain access to the local markets. It is a known fact that these farmers struggle to access and compete in the market but have the potential to make a profitable income that can sustain their livelihoods.
We urge the department to continue to support and empower women to participate actively in the agricultural sector. Programmes such as Women in Agriculture and Youth in Agriculture and Rural Development should play a pivotal role in promoting food safety by safeguarding human life.
I would like to commend the department for its achievement in providing for the additional allocation for flood relief in the Western Cape. We are also happy to have been informed that the same department, under the leadership of Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson, has allocated an additional R46,9 million for the drought relief fund to the Eastern Cape and Western Cape departments. We have no doubt that this department, under the political leadership of the ANC and Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson, is capable of and committed to successfully delivering on its mandate for all our people.
In conclusion, our committee will consistently monitor the department's programme of action by ensuring that the department implements its mandate in accordance with the expectations of the policy of the ruling party. The ANC supports the department's Budget Vote. [Applause.]
Chairperson, the Minister has again emphasised her department's commitment to realising their job creation goals. Talk is cheap. We need more. The Minister must give us a structured and well- planned synopsis on how the department intends to deliver on its goals.
Ek kan nie sien dat hierdie departement se doelstellings ooit bereik sal word nie. Ons sal moet sien wat die resultaat daarvan sal wees. Tel egter hierby die feit dat die departement sukkel om persone met die nodige kennis en ervaring in diens te neem, en die prentjie word al hoe donkerder. Wat word gedoen om die meer as 700 ongevulde poste in die direktoraat te vul, waarvan 60% in hoogs gespesialiseerde velde is? (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[I can't see that this department's goals will ever be achieved. We will have to see what the result will be. However, add to this the fact that the department is struggling to employ people with the necessary know-how and experience, and the picture becomes more and more bleak. What is being done to fill the more than 700 vacant posts in the directorate, 60% of which are in highly specialised fields?]
The fisheries programme's budget will increase by 9,1% in real terms. Is this enough to address the challenges of underfunding of fisheries? What has been done regarding understaffing under this programme? In a newspaper today the ANC MP Salam Abram agrees with the community of the West Coast that the department is in tatters. I agree with the fact that the Minister might be very important and hands-on in terms of agriculture, but in the fishing sector she is failing dismally. [Interjections.]
Visserye is die enigste sektor binne die departement wat 'n rele daling in die begroting toon. Sal die departement kan uitvoering gee aan sy mandaat, dit ook in die lig van die grootskaalse vakatures in die departement? In alle insette in die direktoraat is dit duidelik dat die departement die afgelope drie jaar reeds sukkel om die visseryehandves - the Fishing Charter - van stapel te stuur. Uit die voorstelle wat ter tafel gel is tydens die laaste vergadering van die gekose komitee met die departement het dit duidelik geword dat die "sny en plak" roete gevolg gaan word met die handves vir visserye.
Dit is verstommend om die departement se besluit oor finansile hulpverlening aan kommersile boere te sien, dit na afloop van verwoestende vloede in groot dele van ons land. Boere sukkel letterlik en figuurlik om kop bo water te hou. Dit is dieselfde boere wat ook ons nasie moet voed. Ons bevestig net weereens aan boere wat hulself reeds hervestig het in die res van Afrika, of wat van plan is om dit te doen, dat dit die regte besluit is. Voedselsekerheid word bedreig, maar dit lyk nie of die departement werklik ernstig is nie.
Ek praat as 'n Weskuskind en 'n Weskusklong. In die Weskus - die deel van die Wes-Kaap wat 80% van die aktiwiteite van die visserybedryf beslaan - ervaar ons armoede, werkloosheid en ongeletterdheid. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Fisheries is the only sector within the department where the budget is showing a real decrease. Will the department be able to carry out its mandate, taking into account the extent of the vacancies within the department? It is clear from all the inputs with regard to the directorate that the department has already been struggling to launch the Fishing Charter for the past three years. From the proposals that were tabled during the last meeting of the select committee with the department it became clear that the "cut and paste" route will be followed with the Fishing Charter.
It is shocking to observe the department's decision on financial support to commercial farmers, following the devastating floods in large parts of our country. Farmers are struggling literally and figuratively to keep their heads above water. These are the same farmers who also have to feed our nation. We are simply confirming once again to farmers who have already relocated to other parts of Africa, or who are planning to do so, that it is the right decision. Food security is being threatened, but the department does not really seem to be serious about it.
I speak as a someone who was born and bred in the West Coast, and as a "Weskusklong". On the West Coast - the part of the Western Cape comprising 80% of the activities of the fishing industry - we are experiencing poverty, unemployment and illiteracy.]
In the aquaculture sector, which is a relatively new sector, transformation doesn't exist. Only unskilled labour is the order of the day in the aquaculture sector. [Time expired.]
Chairperson, I would to really like to stress to hon Worth that they, as the DA, should forget that they will ever see an island in the form of the Western Cape within South Africa. South Africa is a united country, and there is no way that they can have an island in the country. I also want to talk to the hon de Beer. He must make sure that he prepares his own speech so that he avoids embarrassing himself in the House. [Laughter.]
South Africa comes from a history riddled with land and stock dispossession, forceful removals and apartheid-engineered underdevelopment. This dispossession was one of the major systemic mechanisms used by the apartheid regime to condemn our people to a poverty trap and underdevelopment. By the way, our nation also comes from an atrocious and tragic past where the majority of our people were forced to separate settlements and their land taken from them. In many instances our people were forced to abandon our long tradition of self-reliance to serve the selfish interests of apartheid masters. It was for this reason that we adopted the Freedom Charter in 1955, which says, "The land shall be shared among those who work it." We also made this formidable commitment: "Restrictions of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended." It was for this reason that we took a decisive resolution and said that all land shall be "re-divided shared among those who work it to banish famine and hunger. The state shall help the peasants with implements, seed, tractors and dams to save the soil and assist the tillers."
At the dawn of our political democracy in 1994 we adopted a visionary policy that reasserted our historic resolve to redress the legacy of dispossession and discrimination suffered by our people and ensure that our people see a new dawn of development in the areas where they live, return to the land of their forefathers and take part and benefit from the economic activities and resources of their country.
Consequential to that, we adopted a Reconstruction and Development Programme, RDP, which identified the following areas of focus for the ANC government as its mandate with regard to agriculture: the need to move with utmost speed to spread the ownership base in the agricultural sector; to encourage and expand the participation of our people in small-scale agriculture; to re-engineer our society towards using agriculture as a means to break the cycle of generational poverty; and to ensure that households have food security.
The RDP White Paper recommitted our government and our nation to a new path of agricultural development. It reaffirmed the need for support services to be provided by the democratic government, including marketing, finance and access to the co-operative sector that must concentrate on smallholder and resource-poor farmers, especially women. It is this very commitment that finds expression and resonance in the Budget Vote of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
At the ANC's 51st national conference in December 2002 we resolved to encourage our people to use agriculture as a strategic intervention to redress the social and economic conditions left by the long years of apartheid. We also resolved to ensure the development of co-operatives in our communities. We also resolved to put into action the commitment we made in the Freedom Charter by ensuring the development of comprehensive support packages for farmers, farm workers and farm dwellers.
The 2007 52nd national conference of the ANC resolved to pursue a programme of economic transformation based on, among other things, a comprehensive agrarian reform strategy, which combines rural development, agricultural ownership and production transformation. We undertook to build potential for rural sustainable livelihoods, particularly for African women.
This Budget Vote responds to the commitments made by the ANC government. It expresses the path envisaged by the forefathers of the ANC, who remained resolute in the fight to ensure that the people of South Africa also share in the resources of their land. I say this because it has been clear that over the years the department continued to move with speed to deliver on the important mandate outlined in the Freedom Charter and respond to the challenges facing our people today.
The agricultural sector contributed over 2% of our national gross domestic product in 2009. This sector has also responded to the call made by President Jacob Zuma to mobilise all our sectors and resources to create jobs for our people. In total, the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector employs approximately 660 000 workers. The agricultural value chain remains one of the priority sectors in government's Industrial Policy Action Plan, Ipap, for economic growth and job creation.
The department is funding a number of small infrastructure projects at a total project cost of R1,2 billion, including R28 million for fences to manage the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, R7 million to drill and fit boreholes for agricultural purposes and R2 million for the Lesotho border fence. Amounts of R55 million and R45 million in the outer years of 2012-13 and 2013-14 will be used for fencing purposes under the LandCare programme grant.
Poverty, food insecurity and environmental degradation are part of the reality that countries across the world are confronted with on a daily basis and have been recognised as critical development challenges that need to enjoy highest priority on the development agenda. Millions of our people who farm on small agricultural plots do make substantial contributions to poverty reduction and the creation of sustainable livelihoods under the most adverse conditions. Part-time and full-time agriculture in these areas therefore remain a critical opportunity for our people's efforts to combat poverty, provide social security for themselves and build sustainable livelihoods.
The department's strategic plan indicates that farmers have already been categorised into subsistence, smallholder and commercial farmers. At the subsistence level, the intervention, in keeping with the 51st national conference of the ANC resolution, seeks to support farmers with basic agricultural standard bags that include seed and seedlings, fertiliser and livestock. To ensure food security and accessibility, small commercial farmers receive support and assistance to enable them to continue producing sufficient food for consumption while responding to export demands.
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has responded to the call made by the Freedom Charter to help with implements, seeds, tractors and dams to save the soil and assist the tillers. Accordingly, the strategic plan of the department refers to a major infrastructure programme to be rolled out to build economic and social infrastructure through the upgrading of roads to link farmers in rural areas to mainstream markets, as poor road networks discourage investment in rural agriculture.
In conclusion, allow me to thank the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for leading the ANC's commitment to improve the living and working conditions of our rural communities, particularly farm workers. This department is at the core of our fight against poverty and underdevelopment in rural areas where the majority of the poor and the workers, those whose land was taken, live. It is through this department that we continue to wage a war against high prices, food insecurity and underdevelopment in rural areas. It is through this department that we are able to say to our people that we are truly on a path to ensure that they enjoy a better quality of life. Amandla! [Applause.]
The MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES: Hon Chairperson, the proceedings of the debate today indeed show that South Africa still consists of two countries and two economies. The one is rich and white, with very little idea of what is happening with the poor, marginalised and disadvantaged. When people of the Western Cape spoke, three different views developed here today. The common view, or the common understanding, was that there needed to be an independent Republic of the Western Cape, which still embraced apartheid, and in which the richest of the poor blacks are used as token faces, BEE partners and the shadow faces for the masters. Slaves are still being used to produce food for the masters. [Applause.] That is, unfortunately, the reality of the debate today. [Interjections.]
Unfortunately, again, we had someone today who still goes under the ideology of a slave and speaks of fishing having to go to the white slave master. The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has to be located with the white slave master in the Western Cape who still espouses apartheid. Fishing is not a Western Cape economic entity. It belongs to the whole of South Africa, including KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Northern Cape and, as aquaculture, in the rest of the country. Free State and the rest of the country have aquaculture. So, if you put fisheries in the independent apartheid state of the Western Cape, you believe in segregated and separated economic development for all South Africans.
Furthermore, I am told that foot-and-mouth disease came from Mozambique. Everything that is bad comes from the dark continent of Africa. The strain of foot-and-mouth disease that we have in KwaZulu-Natal comes from the very same game farms in KwaZulu-Natal run by your commercial farmers. It does not come from Mozambique but from within our country. Therefore, don't present Africa as a dark continent that is full of disease and full of everything that is bad. [Interjections.]
The MEC expressed some gratitude for us compensating the ostrich farmers. We have compensated the ostrich farmers who are predominately white and commercial farmers. [Interjections.] On the other hand, commercial farmers are crying for flood relief. We cannot always be an insurance policy for commercial farmers. They must take out insurance. We are a government and we run the government's programmes, not an insurance policy. If you are in any business - and farming is a business - you must have an insurance policy. [Interjections.] So, for now, we are still paying out farmers who have problems with ostriches, but it won't be for long. We are not going to pay them out for long. [Interjections.]
We are also saying, with regard to the outbreak of H5N1, that the government compensated farmers for the ostriches slaughtered during the control period, but we have noted that in this industry they are laying off workers despite being paid compensation. [Interjections.] So don't tell us we must compensate you so that you can keep your workers because those farmers we have compensated for ostriches slaughtered have laid off their workers. We did the work together to ensure that those who are compensated remain in the industry and that workers do not lose their jobs.
On the other hand, we are giving low-interest loans at an interest rate of 2% to those farmers who lost their industries or livelihood through floods - the chief executive officer of the Land Bank is here. If that is not assisting them, then what more can we do? That is "mahala" [for free]. We are giving them loans for free, but they are very used to getting everything for free. We cannot now still give them everything for free. If we give you a loan at 2%, that is already subsidising you. Please, I don't know how much more we can still help people when already we are hard- pressed to help the poorest of the poor.
In this regard, yes, we are looking at the small fisheries sector and the small-scale fishing policy will go through the Cabinet processes in July and by the end of August we will finally have the small-scale fishing policy approved. [Applause.] Through this we will support investment in community entities to take joint responsibility for sustainably managing fishing resources and to address the depletion of critical fishing stocks. We will develop the national aquaculture development programme and the strategic framework, which is aimed at creating jobs and wealth as well as increasing productivity and sustainability in the fisheries and aquaculture sector. The aquaculture and rural livelihoods programme is being formulated to assist in developing provincial aquaculture strategies.
We have initiated a regional capacity-building programme with the state vets of Rhodes University on an aquaculture book, Aquatic Animal Diseases Diagnostics and Management. These are all very good ideas that are being implemented. In the Free State, we are ensuring that hatcheries are also being funded.
In conclusion, I wish to thank the members who made inputs here today; not those who made a noise. [Laughter.] I want to thank the Chairperson, the members of the select committee and other Members of Parliament - I am very sorry you did not speak today, because I was anticipating your input but anyway, thank you very much for chairing this session - all the MECs and the HODs of the provinces - the MEC of the Western Cape in particular, who is very sane in his approach. Sometimes I forget that he is a member of the DA because he is one of the two members of the opposition who give a sane presentation and wise advice. [Interjections.] I thank the director- general, Mr Langa Zita; our senior managers; the deputy directors-general of the department, who bear with me and sometimes with my very harsh words; and the staff who were acting and really sacrificed their time, night and day, to work for this programme.
Allow me to thank Dr Mogajane and the team, who have worked nonstop through the outbreaks of diseases we had. I am sure that the Western Cape can attest to the fact that Dr Mogajane, Dr Maja and our vets have been working weekends and after hours to curb the spread of disease.
I also want to thank the staff of the Ministry; they are at the rock face of the demands of the Minister, and sometimes these demands are enormous, but that is the constituency I serve; it is impatient.
Hon member Mashile, you make me feel that I am doing something. Sometimes one becomes so despondent and you feel that you just get negative criticism and are doing nothing at all. Therefore, thank you for those kind words. I thank the hon members from the ANC for their support. We don't just want to hear the good, but one good thing can make you work harder. When you just hear negative comments, you start losing hope and think that what you are doing is in vain. [Interjections.] Yes, but it doesn't always help to give a dog a bad name. When you give the dog a bad name all the time and abuse my officials, they end up believing that they are useless and they are no good. Sometimes it is also good for officials to hear that their hard work is appreciated. We don't just want to hear good things, please; our egos are not that fragile!
Allow me to thank our stakeholders. AgriSA speaks harshly to us, but we listen to them and they also give us good advice. The Transvaal Agricultural Union, TAU, doesn't just go to court to fight Julius Malema, but also gives good advice. The National African Farmers' Union, Nafu, also fights us, but they also give us good advice. The fishing communities are ready to slaughter us, but they also give us good advice. [Interjections.]
To our stakeholders in forestry, sometimes they feel that I have totally forgotten them. There is a huge fight for my time and as a mother I cannot pretend that one child is more important than the other. It is only a mother who knows that children must be treated equally and fairly. If I say, little child, can you just hold it, mommy is paying attention to this one now, do not feel neglected, just realise that Forestry and Fisheries also need my attention.
To all of you in this Council, thanks for your constructive criticism. It is always a pleasure for me to come to the NCOP. We are always enriched after we have been to the NCOP. My officials always come from the select committee feeling enriched and positive. For that, I thank you all. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.