Farmers need security of land and assets - Patrice Motsepe
9 October 2018
Billionaire businessman and philanthropist Patrice Motsepe says South African farmers, both black and white, need to be safe in the knowledge that their right to land and assets are protected.
He told AgriSA’s annual congress in Pretoria that he believed in the future of agriculture and its related industries, but that everyone in South Africa would have to work together to ensure that the marginalised and those without hope were included in the economy.
Motsepe, who delivered his remarks mostly in Afrikaans, said: "Every single farmer, black and white, as well as all participants in the agri-economy must keep in their mind, and according to their judgment… that they feel that the industry has a future, that they want to invest and that their right to land and assets are protected, and will be protected... doesn’t matter what politicians think."
He added his voice to what AgriSA president Dan Kriek had earlier said, when he implored President Cyril Ramaphosa to acknowledge the scourge of violent crime on farms and in rural areas. Kriek told delegates that he knew Ramaphosa was acutely aware of the high levels of crime, but that it was of utmost importance that the head of state talked publicly about the matter. Ramaphosa was roundly criticised recently after his remarks in New York, where he was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that there were "no killings of... white farmers in South Africa".