In a reply to a DA parliamentary question, the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), Senzeni Zokwana, stated that DAFF had allocated a total of R35.74 million to Fort Cox College, as part of the College Revitalisation Programme, over a four year period and specifically allocated R13.44 million in the 2014/15 year.
Fort Cox Manager, Colin Painter, has recently been quoted saying “very little re-investment in the farm has taken place until this 2014/2015 financial year when DAFF allocated R3 million from its budget to fund upgrades.”
The Minister’s response is therefore in direct contradiction to the actual state of Fort Cox due to chronic under funding which I personally witnessed during an oversight visit with DA leader in the Eastern Cape, Athol Trollip MPL, at the end of January. During our visit some of the most upsetting discoveries included a carcass of a pig lying around unattended on the farm yard and cattle in the feedlot standing knee-deep in manure. This farm has obviously been neglected over the years and no practical experience can be provided to students under the current conditions.
I will today write to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Machwene Semenya, asking that she summon the Minister to appear before the Committee and explain the discrepancy in the funding and account for the missing funds allocated to Fort Cox.
It is imperative that the Department properly fund and support Agricultural Colleges as their mandate is the educating and training of students to create South Africa’s future farmers.
According to a report by Deloitte, South Africa is facing the prospect of looming food shortages in the next 10 years as the country struggles to attract new talent to its ageing crop of commercial farmers.
With the average age of a commercial farmer in this country at around 62, South Africa is simply not attracting enough new farmers to the sector to fill the gap they are going to leave as they start to retire over the next decade, the Deloitte report found.
AgriSA data indicates that South Africa had 120 000 farmers in 1994 compared to 37 000 at present. This dwindling population of commercial farmers supports a population of over 50 million people, of which only 45.6% are considered food secure.
Minister Zokwana – if he is at all serious about maintaining our nation’s food security – must ensure that Agricultural Colleges such as Fort Cox receive all of their allocated funding and should there be a discrepancy between allocated and received funding these claims must be thoroughly investigated and implicated parties dealt with according to due process.