Dying diggers of Namaqualand need saving
| by Reinette Liebenberg, MPL – DA Northern Cape Provincial Spokesperson on Agriculture, Land Reform, Rural Development and Nature Conservation Error! Filename not specified.Date: 10 March 2020Release: Immediate The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape (NC) is deeply concerned about the poor management of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform & Rural Development’s entity, Niewoudville Rooibos (Pty).The entity received over R55 million for the 2018/19 financial year while failing to submit any audit reports.This is quite alarming since farmers in the area have not received any payments since 2018. Employees are also experiencing late salary payments and temporary workers are also left in the lurch.The agricultural landscape in the Northern Cape is in desperate need of transformation and the continuous mismanagement of funds and financial support towards failing entities is robbing emerging farmers of real opportunities.The portfolio committee on Agriculture, Land Reform & Rural Development has raised concerns over the sustainability of entities in recent committee meetings.The DA has requested MEC Nomandla Bloem to intervene and provide feedback but to date no response was received. We cannot allow government to turn a blind eye to this matter and I will be requesting the portfolio committee on Agriculture to schedule an urgent oversight inspection to the Niewoudville Rooibos farm.The question that remains is whether the government should continue pumping state funds into entities like this one, that fail to account for funds allocated to them. Media Enquiries Reinette Liebenberg, MPLDA Northern Cape Provincial Spokesperson on Agriculture, Land Reform, Rural Development and Nature Conservation071 7332 640 Chrystal FrancisResearcher079 2260 991 |
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