Dear Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development,

Josh Samuels :


I am a small scale farmer. I'm located at Penhill Farm kuilsriver.

My commodity is pigs .

I'm a small scale farmer for the past 15 years . I have never received any government assistance whatsoever.

I have tried many times to request assistance from the dept of agriculture.

Everytime the door was closed in my face because of no title deed or lease agreement.

Although I can understand why the department follow only rules and regulations , i still believe that the department need to reconsider the way they look at farmers in my situation.

I represent a large community of farmers that are the backbone of our communities.
We provide fresh meat and produce to our local communities.
We supply breeding stock to other farmers.
We supply employment to unemployed members of society.

During this time of the pandemic we did not receive any help . We also applied for the covid assistance but were turned down.

We are currently farming on land that belong to the department of human settlement. We are here by tacid agreement. We are in a process of mediation to place us elsewhere.

All I asked is to look at the rules that exclude farmers in my position.

We are good women and men that struggle everyday to feed our families and local communities.
We are the farmers that still make it affordable and accessible for our customers.

We are also a human resource that the government must recognise and support.