BLOEMFONTEIN - With the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, the Free State agricultural sector is once again left without any government support after a devastating drought in 2019, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.
In a reply to a question in the Free State legislature, agriculture MEC William Bulwane indicated that the agricultural sector would not receive any of the R870,839,499 disaster relief funding allocated through the Provincial Gazette (No 101, 24 January 2020) from various provincial and national government departments to the Free State, DA leader of the official opposition in the Free State legislature Roy Jankielsohn said in a statement.
"The incoherent and nonsensical reply gives the reason for the lack of disaster relief as: 'The drought disaster have occurred in most of the areas affected before therefore the Disaster Management Center is looking at coping strategies instead of relief again'.”
"The DA will submit a follow up question this week to determine what is meant by 'in most areas affected before' and what 'coping strategies' are," he said.
DA leader of the official opposition in the Free State legislature Roy Jankielsohn. Photo: ANA/Getrude Makhafola
The DA requested the premier to declare the Free State a provincial disaster area in 2019, which was done, and although funding was identified, none had been forthcoming to the economic sector most affected by the drought. Funds allocated to municipalities had been "subjected to various irregularities and malfeasance". Most water insecure communities in urban areas remained so after hundreds of millions of funds had been allocated and spent to mitigate this.
It had to be borne in mind that the agricultural sector in the Free State had been badly affected by the drought and that the effects of this were felt even after rain came. The economic impact of the drought on farmers had serious implications for the province’s rural economies and employment amid serious Covid-19 lockdown economic consequences, he said.
Drought disaster relief for the agricultural sector, which supplied the country’s food under difficult conditions, required immediate action and should be planned for way in advance. Local commercial agricultural output had been threatened by crime, adverse environmental conditions such as droughts, poor commodity prices, increased input costs, and political threats of expropriation without compensation.
While the agricultural sector remained on the essential services list during lockdown, they continued to be deprived of much needed support and remained victims of continuous political rhetoric.
The neglect of the agricultural sector could have adverse consequences on the country’s national food security. Even though the coronavirus would consume many financial resources, a healthy agricultural sector was a prerequisite for a healthy population. All farmers - commercial, emerging, and subsistence - required as much support as the victims of this epidemic, Jankielsohn said.