The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development would like to warn members of the public, especially farmers, of unscrupulous and faceless people that are parading as government officials. Their intention is to defraud unsuspecting farmers who have applied for agricultural COVID-19 relief fund of their hard earned cash, by promising to fast-track their applications.

These faceless people are calling farmers and sending text messages requesting an amount of R2000 as an upfront payment, promising to fast tract their Covid-19 relief-fund applications.

The text message reads: “We see that last year you have applied for Agricultural COVID-19 fund of R50 000 we want to process it fast so can you send R2000 so we can process it before December. Capitec Bank W. WALSH Acc no: 1332654701 Branch Code 470010.”

We are appealing to all our farmers to be careful of this fraudulent activities coordinated by unscrupulous and faceless people, “It is a scam!”

Farmers and members of the public must know that they do nott have to pay for any government service, especially agricultural relief funding which is meant to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The department has finalised the adjudication of all applications received from farmers and the process is now closed 

Those farmers who were either successful or successeful have been notified through SMSes.

Issued by Reggie Ngcobo on behalf of Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, 3 November 2021