Minister of Agriculture Willie Aucamp said that they are working to give farmers the assistance they need in the Eastern Cape following heavy rain causing damage to crops. He spoke on Friday at an engagement with farmers in Humansdorp and Patensie in the Kouga Local municipality in the Eastern Cape.
Aucamp said that the Eastern Cape Department of Agriculture has conducted assessments on the damage caused by the heavy rain. “My first question was: Are we sure that the department's assessment and the farmer's assessment of the damage is the same. What I want to suggest is that where your assessment of the damage on your farm might differ with the assessment that the department had we are more than willing to discuss it so that we can make sure that we've got a proper assessment of the damage.”
Aucamp added that there's no unwillingness from the department, but it is something that again collectively they’ve got to look at.
“Up to now, the Eastern Cape Department of Agriculture has not received any funding from the national government. Again, this flood disaster was classified as a disaster, not declared as one. The difference between being classified and declared is the one's got money and the other one that is classified as a disaster, there is no money.”
Aucamp said that in the past, throughout the country, we have seen our funding that came through declarations of disasters were misappropriated, and we must make sure that this does not happen again. We must spend the money at the places that it needs to be spent, and I've got full confidence that that will happen because we are all going to monitor this. The provincial department of agriculture has submitted their total list of damage to the provincial disaster management accounts.”
Aucamp added that the provincial disaster management must now get the same amount from Health and from Transport and from every affected department, and that must be submitted to the national government to the department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).
Aucamp said that he wants to know whether the information that was provided by the Eastern Cape Department of Agriculture reached the provincial information disaster, and whether that was communicated in other words, does Cogta nationally know exactly what the damage in agriculture was.
“I will push with my discussions... so that we really get this declared as a disaster, and that we get funding to this area as quickly as possible.”
Aucamp added that if something was not done quickly, "it will have a dire effect on job creation in this area, an area where job creation counts. We cannot sit back and think things will be sorted out on its own. We've got to really step in from the government side and help where we can, so that we can get the economy of this area back on traffic.”
Aucamp said that there has been crop losses of 15-20%. “There's been damage to farms to topsoil...we might never be able to to replace it. So we are busy with that.”
Yogashen/pillay@nationalmg.co.za