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.