AGRI SA COMMENTS ON SUSPENSION OF LANGA ZITA

The suspension of Langa Zita as Director-General of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries did not come as a surprise to Agri SA, says Agri SA president Johannes Möller. "Cadre deployment not only holds unacceptable risks for service delivery at all government levels, but is also unfair to individuals such as Mr Zita who should not have been appointed in the post and who has now been suspended", says Möller.

Agri SA's dissatisfaction with service delivery by and relations with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries was brought to a head during the past year with the controversial statements made by Mr Zita, which served as evidence of his ignorance of and sluggish way of addressing problems of commercial agriculture, as well as his strange views on how he would have liked to liaise with the industry.

Möller nevertheless wished Mr Zita well for the future and expressed the hope that his post would be filled by a person with proven management experience as well as knowledge of and insight into the diverse challenges facing the agricultural industry.

Statement issued by Agri SA president Johannes Möller, June 26 2012

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