DA calls for SIU probe after emerging Black farmers blow the lid on corrupt land reform practices
12 October 2020
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will write to President Cyril Ramaphosa to request that he authorises an urgent probe by the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) into allegations that a group of successful emerging Black farmers in Mpumalanga have been harassed and face eviction from farms by corrupt officials in the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD), simply because they refused to pay bribes.
These emerging farmers have endured many years of harassment inflicted by these officials who are in influential and decision-making roles at the department’s Mpumalanga office.
The DA has been working alongside these farmers and have evidence of the relentless tug-of-war they have been subjected to by these corrupt officials within the DALRRD. We will submit this evidence to the President in order to support our request for the SIU to investigate and for these farmers to get justice.
Previous attempts by the farmers for the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza, to intervene failed because she did not give the farmers’ request for intervention the required thought and care.