House Chair, the majority of the 19 projects that the portfolio committee visited in KwaZulu- Natal have completely collapsed. It is not surprising that the recent report by Auditor-General has picked up KwaZulu-Natal as one of the greatest contributors to irregular expenditure.
With the experience, we as the committee got during the oversight, we can bear testimony to that. For this declaration I would like to focus on two projects that really need the urgent attention of the department.
A project in Umkhanyakude at Makhathini Flats run by an entity of the department called Mjindi Farming Enterprise has been supported by the government since 2009 and have thus far received over half a billion rand and farmers
during our meeting raised a lot of dissatisfaction with the model implemented and told the committee that they have never benefited from a cash injection by the government and that they are still appealing for help from the government.
We proposed as the EFF that the department must look deeper into the financial affairs of Mjindi Farming especially at Makhathini Flats as it is not beneficial to the farmers at all and institute a forensic audit as soon as possible.
Another project of Empangisweni Community Trust chaired by Chief D V Zondi of the Empangisweni Traditional Council was formed in 2004. The beneficiaries acquired 500 hectares of land through the restitution of land rights. The Commission of Restitution of Land Rights awarded the restoration of rights to 300 households with 2 700 beneficiaries, 1 547 and 1 200 youth.
The department implemented the project through the Agricultural Development Agency and there are serious allegations of corruption that were raised by the chief
and the community that must be followed up as a matter of urgency and I think the member of the DA also spoke about that, that R3 million was spent on a vegetable project ... there is literally nothing on the ground around that.
Now, there are no operations at the project site except
70 hectares of planted orchards deteriorating on a daily basis because of no funding to the project and a full year has passed now. A hundred and twenty people who used to work at the project have lost their jobs now and an initial investment by government is just going to waste as a result of this.
Clearly these projects will only start making a profit after the harvesting of the trees in about three to five years from now. And why is there no multiyear support from government in the form of a cash injection to this project as it has continued to fund Mjindi for the past 10 years? Now, House Chair, the EFF supports the report.
Thank you. [Applause.]