Yes, we do have the AgriBEE Charter and the Forestry Charter, but these seriously lack teeth, as these sectors remain untransformed owing to the fact that these charters do not obligate the industries to comply with the rest of the country on a forward march drive. We have no option but to engage with the fisheries sector, both fishermen and fisherwomen, together with industry players, to go into a Fisheries Charter gear.
Lastly, the Department of Trade and Industry must be called upon to present its Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Amendment Bill, currently under discussion. In this day and age, it can't be that we still have people who promote fronting, both perpetrators and victims, and who go on unpunished.
Part of measures aimed at supporting and empowering smallholder and subsistence farmers are the state-owned enterprises, whose mandate continues to be that of both pre- and post-settlement support and the marketing of agriculture, forestry and fisheries products.
Research and development cannot be a debate of whether to support these any longer. If we are serious about food production and security in our country and the export of net food produce we must invest in the Agricultural Research Council, our premier state-owned research institution. With the advent of diseases flowing out of climate change, whether due to rains or drought, Onderstepoort Biological Products, OBP, must always be combat-ready and anticipate any outbreaks by inoculating our animals at regular intervals.
Indeed, climate change impacts on poverty, health and jobs - on the daily survival of people. Addressing a Globe International Forum in December 2011, the hon Speaker of Parliament, Mr Max Sisulu, said:
Climate change is becoming the main restraint on development, reversing the significant progress being made towards achieving our developmental goals such as the Millennium Development Goals.
Obsolete equipment in both the ARC and OBP must be attended to as a matter of urgency if we are to achieve our intended goals in our stated vision and our food security goals in South Africa. It is at the research and development stages that all nations make a vast difference towards sustainable food security.
Hon Minister, let this be the last financial year that the Land Bank is detached from where it belongs, which is agriculture. Also, as legislatures, we have a duty to make the Land Bank a smallholder's first lender of choice that is accessible and affordable.
A debate on whether we are a developmental state is behind us and, as such, without a lender of first choice - called the Land Bank - South Africa and its dreams of growing smallholder farmers and the transformation of agriculture will remain a pipe dream.
Lastly, after all is said and done, an extension service makes or breaks any ambition of any smallholder. I repeat: after all is said and done, an extension service makes or breaks any ambition of any smallholder farmer. The state of our extension services in South Africa, by and large, leaves a lot to be desired.
Through a collaborative exercise between all agriculture, forestry and fisheries training institutions, both within the said sectors and other provinces and at national level, the strengthening of extension services must be treated as an emergency.
In 2003, South Africa signed a declaration with Maputo, agreeing to an increase of our national annual Budget to 10% by 2008. Agriculture's contribution towards the GDP is expected to be at 6%. Currently, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' budget stands at 0,9% of our national Budget, whilst agriculture's contribution to GDP stands at 3%.
Whilst we may be struggling with the fiscus in meeting our own signed agreements, like the Maputo Declaration, payments of 10% equity for communities, at the price and time Safcol's - the SA Forestry Company Limited - privatisation transactions were concluded, cannot be extended anymore. What this means is that development in these poor communities has since stalled unnecessarily, owing to the lopsided priorities of our own Department of Public Enterprises.
The last point I want to make is that as we move forward with our country on the instruction of His Excellency President Zuma, who has given us a clear historic challenge to write a new story about South Africa - the story of how working together we can drive back unemployment and reduce economic inequalities - the situation on the farms is certainly writing a different story. Clearly instructions are being given elsewhere, with no intention of moving forward with our country. We have a duty and a responsibility to redirect the energies of both the farmer and the farm worker. Those energies are needed more in writing His Excellency the hon Jacob Zuma's story of driving back unemployment and economic inequality.
No amount of anger that leads to the killing of any farmer shall be condoned in the South Africa we live in today. No such anger shall be allowed to rob and maim any Afrikaner boer - an African farmer, so to speak. Equally, no amount of hatred shall drive any farmer to shoot and kill a young Rodney Tarentaal, 11 - thinking he was a dog - in Klipplaat. This case remains unresolved until today. Farm workers are human beings who must never be thrown out onto the streets, as happened in Patensie, only because they are no longer workers of any particular African farmer. [Interjections.] The ANC supports the Budget Vote. [Time expired.] [Applause.]