No business plan for Zumaville agri project 

In reply to a DA parliamentary question, Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson revealed that there is no business plan guiding the Masibambisane Rural Development Initiative (MRDI). It looks more like a Mangaung warchest for President Jacob Zuma than a policy designed to benefit ordinary South Africans. 

The MRDI is chaired by the president. Government uses communal trust land - held by chiefs - to plant and harvest crops, but there is no mechanism in place to ensure either skill or revenue transfer to the local communities. A draft plan leaked to the press earlier this year indicated an amount of R800m to be sourced from the Department of Agriculture. Yet there is no evidence that the MRDI is genuinely empowering rural people in a sustainable way. 

The parliamentary reply corroborates my observations that this is simply a handout scheme used by President Zuma to curry favour in the province where he is most embattled. 

After I witnessed a harvesting day at one of the Masibambisane sites - the Ncora Irrigation Scheme - I wrote to Minister Joemat-Pettersson asking her to spell out the economic benefit of the MRDI to the rural people it is supposed to empower. She has yet to respond and her reply to the parliamentary questions in this regard provides no evidence of such benefits. She simply states - as though this holds without real evidence - that ‘there is an increase in food security where the initiative has been rolled out...and it is contributing to agricultural productivity'. Where I asked for relevant details, she provided none. The Minister also ignored my request to demonstrate how these conclusions were reached. 

The DA continues to challenge the government to consider more efficient and sustainable ways of creating jobs and ensuring food security and to replace endless government programmes and handouts with initiatives that can foster true empowerment. They have yet to respond with anything meaningful.

Statement issued by Annette Steyn MP, DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, September 21 2012

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