Hon Chair, hon Ministers and hon members, members would be advised to have their earphones ready as I will be speaking in both English and Afrikaans.
When I served on Scopa in the first year of my tenure, I got the impression that the standing committee was burying the dead. By this I mean that those departments and entities were beyond repair. Moving to the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, I expected to be tending to the sick or the wounded. Well, gradually it dawned that the wounds were more serious than mere flesh wounds. I am now convinced that, as a whole, the department is in fact mortally wounded.
Laat my toe om te verduidelik. Die dubbele slag van onvoldoende begrotings en kaderontplooiing is besig om te veroorsaak dat die departement homself doodbloei. Die afdelings of entiteite wat die beste vaar - en sommige, soos die Perishable Products Export Control Board, die Onderstepoort Biological Products en andere vaar selfs uitstekend - is grotendeels selfversorgend wat finansies betref, het 'n element van private inisiatief en is onder goeie bestuur. Die logiese gevolgtrekking wat 'n mens kan maak, is dat die departement grootliks ontbind moet word en die funksies deur die privaatsektor behartig moet word. Die Minister kan dit maar gerus oorweeg en sodoende van haar nagmerries ontslae raak. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Allow me to explain. The double blow of inadequate budgeting and cadre deployment is causing the department to bleed to death. Those sections or entities that are performing the best - and some, such as the Perishable Products Export Control Board, Onderstepoort Biological Products and others are even excelling - are largely self-sufficient as regards financing, have an element of private initiative and are under good management.
The logical conclusion one can come to is that the department should be largely disbanded and the functions managed by the private sector. The Minister can safely consider doing this, thereby getting rid of her nightmares.]
More than a year ago in a meeting with the Minister, I told the Minister that in the Marine and Coastal Management she had inherited a can of worms.
Wel, miskien het die Minister gedink ek oordryf, maar die media, wat gewoonlik beter weet, het dit gerapporteer. Die bewyse is nou daar en die media berig op Dinsdag, 22 Maart vanjaar, dat die amptenare die Minister dalk mislei het deur die antwoorde wat verskaf is op vrae wat deur die agb mnr Ellis aan haar gestel is. Ek hoop die ondersoek wat u gelas het, word deur onafhanklike persone gedoen.
Oor hierdie afdeling wat nou al vir jare na vrot vis ruik, wil ek nie meer s nie, behalwe dat dit die Minister nog lank gaan besig hou.
Die huidige renseisoen in die binneland is buitengewoon en damme is besig om vol te raak. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Well, the Minister may have thought I was exaggerating, but the media, which usually knows better, reported this. The evidence is now clear and the media reported on Tuesday, 22 March of this year, that the officials may have misled the Minister through the answers that were provided to questions that were put to her by the hon Mr Ellis. I hope the investigation that you have ordered will be undertaken by independent persons.
About this section, which for years has been reeking of rotten fish, I wish to say no more, except that it will keep the Minister occupied for a long time to come.
The current inland rainy season is exceptional and dams are filling up.]
In this case the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs apparently did not realise that there were farms downriver from the dams and that the gradual opening of dams is required to avoid flooding these farms. We now have the situation that these farms lost their entire harvest and the state refuses to compensate the farmers.
The most glaring example of incompetence and mismanagement demonstrated must certainly be the inability to act and repair the fence between KwaZulu- Natal and Mozambique. How is it possible that a provincial department cannot, over a period of eight years, see that the fence is down, and not report it and not repair it? How is it possible that they did not realise the consequences of this? If it was reported and budgeted for in the amount of R27 million last year alone, how was it possible that the national department did nothing about it? The answer is that we simply don't know because the department and provincial departments, except in the Western Cape, seem to be clueless. Minister, if your department lies to you or, as it is expressed in parliamentary fashion, misleads you, then you will also end up being clueless.
Minister, if you need to fly, rather fly along the border fences and inspect them. Unfortunately and on a lighter note, you won't earn Voyager Miles.
Furthermore, there are two aspects that need to be addressed: The waning profitability of commercial farming and wrong perceptions.
Daar bestaan die persepsie dat boerdery onwinsgewend bedryf kan word, solank dit net produseer. Dit is natuurlik absolute malligheid. Daar bestaan ook die persepsie dat plase met marginale winste deur die bank in 50% ekwiteitskemas omskep kan word. Dit is natuurlik 'n saak van ekonomiese onmoontlikheid.
Solank ons hierdie wanpersepsies voed, gaan die Minister, die regering en die departement die verkeerde strategie najaag en die verkeerde besluite neem. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[The perception exists that farming may be practised unprofitably, as long as there is production. Of course this is absolute lunacy. The perception also exists that farms with marginal profits can be transformed into 50% equity schemes by banks. This is, of course, a matter of economic impossibility.
As long as we keep on feeding these misconceptions, the Minister, the government and the department will keep on chasing after the wrong strategies and taking the wrong decisions.]
The end result will be spectacular and catastrophic. We do not want to repeat Mao's "Great Leap Forward". The department simply does not have the budget or the capacity to carry out their policies and mandate. In fact, I am of the opinion that the department does not even have the capacity to write properly researched policies, let alone implement them. The recent small-scale fishing policy is a case in point.
As far as profitability in the private sector is concerned, the commercial fishing industry does not make enough profit to reinvest in fishing vessels. The return on investment will not be enough. Law enforcement and the protection of marine resources are issues that remain unresolved by this and previous budgets, for various reasons.
The fish may be there, but we won't be able to harvest it profitably, and by "profitably" I mean that we have to sell it at an affordable price to the consumers. This is the crux of the matter, not only for fish products, but everything else, except of course selling government, which seems to be a monopoly product, hopefully not for long.
Wreldwyd is voedselpryse in 'n gevaarlike opwaartse spiraal, soos die afgelope tyd en vandag weer in die Business Report van die Cape Times gerapporteer word. In Suid-Afrika is die jaarlikse voedselinflasie nou so 36% tot 37%. Die Gautengse tolpaaie gaan die vervoerder van landbouvoorrade 'n addisionele 66 sent per kilometer uit die sak jaag, en byvoorbeeld melk se prys van R7 tot R10 per liter verhoog. Net hier om die draai is die wynbedryf op sy knie. Die vrugtebedryf is weens die sterk rand op dun ys. Die kleinveebedryf word met fisiese uitwissing deur ongediertes bedreig. Die grootvee- en wildbedryf word deur die regering se onvermo om bek-en- klouseer te voorkom, bedreig. Die koringoes is die laagste in dekades weens boere se onttrekking uit die bedryf omdat dit nie winsgewend is nie, ens. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[Globally food prices are in a dangerous upward spiral, as has been reported of late and again today in the Business Report of the Cape Times. Annual food inflation in South Africa is now at 36% to 37%. The Gauteng toll roads are going to cost the conveyors of agricultural supplies an additional 66 cents per kilometer, increasing, for instance, the price of milk from R7 to R10 per litre. Just up the road here the wine industry is on its knees. Because of the strong rand, the fruit industry is on thin ice. The small livestock industry is under threat of being physically eradicated by wild animals. The cattle and game farming industries are under threat from the government's inability to prevent foot-and-mouth disease. The wheat harvest is at its lowest in decades, because farmers are withdrawing from the industry now that it is no longer profitable, etc.]
Governments worldwide fear and are preparing for a steady rise in food prices and a shortage of food, but in South Africa the government seems to be oblivious to this fact, if one looks at policies and budget allocations. The government is contemplating agricultural reforms that would require extensive capital and manpower with the right skills, and yet cannot compensate 100 farmers for flood damage. How will more than 200 000 small- scale farmers be established and sustained; with what?
Although it is necessary to develop unproductive trust lands, where are the funds going to come from? It is incomprehensible how the department and the Minister can deceive themselves that the strategies and action plans will, in fact, achieve the goals.
Die grootste bedreigings vir Suid-Afrika op hierdie oomblik is in die persepsies dat winsgewende boerdery en groeiende produksie nie belangrik is nie; dat kommersile boerdery deur kleiner eenhede vervang kan word; dat kleinboere die stedelike bevolking goedkoper kan voed; en dat, wanneer alles uiteindelik skeefloop en die planne faal, Suid-Afrika voedsel kan invoer.
Wel, eerstens sal ons nie alle tekorte kan invoer nie, want die wreld gaan tekorte h. Tweedens, wat ons wel sal kan invoer, sal so vrek duur wees dat net die rykes dit sal kan bekostig. Teen die tyd dat stowebeesvleis R500 per kilogram kos, is die land al lankal onregeerbaar. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[The biggest threats facing South Africa at this stage are found in the perceptions that profitable farming and increased production are of no importance; that commercial farming can be replaced by smaller units; that smallholder farmers can feed city populations more cheaply; and that eventually, when it all goes awry and these plans fail, South Africa can import food.
Well, firstly, we will not be able to import to cover all of the shortages, because the world will be experiencing shortages. Secondly, what we will be able to import will be so hellishly expensive that only the rich will be able to afford it. By the time stewing beef costs R500 per kilogram, the country will have been ungovernable for some time].
Minister, I have studied your performance agreement signed with the President carefully ... Thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]