Alleged irregular, wasteful and corrupt practices related to National Drought Relief funds awarded to drought stricken provinces during 2016
31 May 2017
In 2016, South Africa faced the effects of the most serious drought in decades. Six provinces were declared disaster areas, [KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West and the Northern Cape] whilst in two, [Western and Eastern Cape] only specific district municipalities were declared disaster areas. The drought resulted in severe grain shortages, forced livestock sales, loss of livestock life and a negative impact on the financial stability of farmers across the affected areas.
During the 2016 drought, Agri SA as a responsible membership based organization, pro-actively acted and commissioned a task team to look at the devastating effects of the drought, and with industry participants, came up with solutions and mitigation measures.
A Drought Task Team (DTT) consisting of Agri SA, the Land Bank, Agbiz, African Farmers’ Association of SA (Afasa), the Transvaal Agricultural Union SA (TAU SA); Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC); SA Grain Milling; Industrial Development Corporation (IDC); Banking Association SA (BASA), Grain SA and other commercial banks was established.
The DTT held various meetings inter alia since November 2015 until March 2016. The DTT also held a SA Drought Media Conference on 22 February 2016 in Cape Town and a further media conference, in conjunction with the Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU), on 1 March 2016, focusing on the drought situation in SADC.