E Molewa: Agri North West annual congress

5 September 2006

Programme Director
MEC for Agriculture, Conservation and Environment, Hon Mandlenkosi
Mayisela
Agri North West President Mnr Piet Meyer
Members of the Agri NW Executive Committee
Agri North West specialist committees
Agri North West district farmers' unions
Agri North West farmers' associations
Representatives of the affiliated agricultural companies
North West Women's Agricultural Union
Distinguished guests and delegates to the congress
Ladies and gentlemen

"Whoever desires to be great among you must be your servant. And whoever
wishes to be most important and first in rank among you must be slave of all.
For even the Son of Man came not to have service rendered to Him, but to serve,
and to give His life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10: 41-50)

I begin this address by quoting from the Holy Bible for two reasons. The
first one relates to our collective prayers for Agri North West Chief Executive
Officer, Mr Willie Auret, who is still in a serious condition in hospital after
a horrific motor accident that claimed, among other people, the life of his
wife already.

It is at moments like this that we seek spiritual guidance and consolation
from the word of God as given to us through the Holy Scriptures.

Thus as we gather here today for this annual congress, our collective
thoughts and prayers are with him. We wish him a speedy recovery while we also
wish him and his entire family strength during this very dark hour. May Willie
Auret's wife's soul rest in peace and may Mr Auret himself find consolation in
the Lord the Almighty.

The second reason I have quoted this Biblical text relates to some of the
important business of this congress in electing its leadership during this
congress. I will therefore return to the question of leadership later in my
address.

For now, I would like to start by thanking Agri North West once again for
extending this generous invitation to the Provincial Government and to me as
Premier of the North West province to come and address this critically
important gathering.

I always welcome with great delight the opportunity to interact with the
commercial farmers, the emergent farmers, the experts and our general
agricultural community that is gathered here for the Agri North West Annual
Congress.

Even during my earlier life as MEC for Agriculture, I have always
endeavoured to be part of this important congress for the simple reason that
the work you do as farmers and members of our agricultural sector has a far
greater impact on our province, on our country, on our economy and indeed on
the general welfare of our society.

It is therefore a great honour for me to rise, like last year, to deliver an
address to this gathering.

As I begin the address, allow me to quote words from one of our revered sons
of the soil, the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu during his Harold Wolpe
Memorial Lecture a few days ago because I think his words are important to this
gathering and its activities during this annual congress.

Talking about the demands of leadership, Archbishop Tutu said: "The good
leader in our African tradition was the one who listened to various and diverse
points of view and would them sum up, describing the consensus he believed had
emerged. Everyone felt they had been listened to, that their views had been
taken seriously into account and that indeed they mattered in the scheme of
things. We experienced some of this when we made our transition from repression
to freedom. The winners were magnanimous in victory."

I believe the question of leadership and what type of leadership Agri North
West wants is very critical at this point of development for all the people of
the province generally and the agricultural community in particular.

This is for the important reason that as a mostly rural province,
agriculture is the lifeblood of our province and our people. Without it, there
could be no economic growth whose wealth can be shared among all the people of
the province.

At the beginning of the year during our State of the Province Address, we
acknowledged the challenges faced by the agricultural sector in general and our
own Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment specifically. In
particular, we committed the Provincial Government to deploy all available
resources in the sector to boost rural development and assist both commercial
and emergent farmers.

We made these commitments in the firm belief that agriculture is one of the
critical pillars of our provincial economy and that without its growth we can
never attain our target of growing the economy by six percent or more and
contributing to our national effort for economic growth, development and
national prosperity in line with both our Provincial Growth and Development
Strategy (PGDS) and the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South
Africa (AsgiSA).

May I also take this opportunity to acknowledge the commitment of Agri North
West through it is leadership to the PGDS, that you have demonstrated by
participating in the Agriculture and Agribusiness Working Group and other
government-led forums including the Land Reform structures which are all meant
to shape the economy of the country to better the lives of our people.

You have demonstrated that not only were you signatories to the PGDS
resolutions as adopted by all stakeholders in the sector, but also that you are
active participants to achieve the set objectives. In that manner, you have
shown that indeed you are fully with Government in ensuring that the interests
of your members and those of the farming communities are well served and that
their voice is heard.

I must also applaud Agri South Africa for its endeavours in ensuring that
the goal of uniting organised agriculture through the concluded agreements at
national level are pursued by all. I believe what you are faced with is to
realise the actual implementation of such agreements. This is also consistent
and in line with the vision of the Department of Agriculture which seeks to
attain a united and prosperous agricultural sector.

We would therefore look to this congress not only to provide leadership in
our agricultural endeavours, but also move our province forward in increasing
agricultural productivity and taking the agricultural economy to its highest
level in pursuit of the goals of building a better province for all the people
of North West.

I am certain that as usual, this congress will be seized with other
important matters of Agri North West including its Annual Report, important
financial statements, any changes to its Constitution as there may be, as well
as the core business of Agri North West, which is sustainable agricultural
production in a changing and rapidly developing North West Province.

The other critical matter I would like to raise with this congress relates
to the progress regarding Agri Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), that is, the
pace of transformation in the way Agri North West is implementing its targets
for BEE. In this regard, we need to ask if we are making significant headway
and what are the challenges that stand in the way of the empowerment of
previously marginalised groups in our province.

I would also be interested in how far Agri North West has progressed in
addressing the currently pressing issues of land restitution, land acquisition
models as well as the willing-buyer willing-seller policy as raised by
President Mbeki early this year.

During the State of the Nation Address, the President made the announcement
that the Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs will, during 2006 "review the
willing-buyer willing-seller policy; review land acquisition models and
possible manipulation of land prices; and regulate conditions under which
foreigners buy land. This will be done in line with international norms and
practices." President Mbeki further mandated the Minister and her department to
also ensure that the land redistribution programme was aligned to the
Provincial Growth and Development Strategies (PGDS) as well as the Integrated
Development Plans (IDP) of municipalities, and to attend to the proper use of
the funds that have been made available for the productive utilisation of the
land.

As you may be aware, the provincial government has already institutionalised
an approach through which matters of Land Reform will be handled in a
transparent, orderly and well co-ordinated manner. To this end, we have already
set up a Land Reform co-ordinating structure led by the MEC for Department of
Agriculture, Conservation and Environment, which comprises also of Departments
of Public Works, Developmental Local Government and Housing, Provincial Land
Reform Office, the Land Claims Commission responsible for North West province
as well as the Land Bank.

As a crucial stakeholder, Agri North West also serves in the technical level
of this structure to provide technical inputs in order for us to achieve the
set targets of land reform by 2014. I must mention that the establishment of
this co-ordinating structure is also partly because of the consistent inputs
made by Agri North West in the past during the meetings I held with your Agri
North West leadership, which indicates clearly that the things we have agreed
together on are beginning to bear fruit.

As South Africa, we want to make the reform programme to be exemplary to the
world as we have shown in many other respects that South Africa has the ability
to resolve its own challenges in an inclusive, peaceful and progressive manner.
Let us therefore join hands and work together to realize the goal of building a
country whose economic growth is deployed to bettering the lives of all its
citizens, not a chosen few.

As you may be aware, one of the reasons why there has been decline in the
sector in the recent past is the whole issue of trade barriers which, although
not our own invention, but forming part of the global dynamics that the
agricultural sector has to deal with. This particular challenge of trade
barriers hits very hard to the detriment of the developing countries such as
ours.

Nevertheless, I believe that Agri North West is quite aware of our country's
position and that we will remain committed as government and all our partners
to continue working to attain what is best for all our citizens. We therefore
urge you to continue to make your inputs on this and other international
debates so that one day we are able to enjoy the fruits of our common toil in a
manner that will benefit all our farmers, the agricultural sector and the
country at large.

We should continue to use all the existing platforms to channel the
discussions on the trade issues. The province is in the process of
resuscitating the Agricultural Trade and Marketing Forum that was launched in
the recent times. This structure should be used as a feeder to our national
forum where a co-ordinated approach is taken and resources are optimally
utilised to maximise the attainment of opportunities brought about through such
institutional arrangements.

However, I am certain that as the Agri North West Annual Congress
deliberates on these and other important matters, you will all be guided by the
belief that as people of North West and of South Africa, we share a common
destiny of peace, democracy, non-racism, non-sexism, shared prosperity and a
better life for all.
As the provincial government, we will continue to engage Agri North West and
all our social partners to address our common challenges and assist Government
in implementing a comprehensive development plan to improve the lives of all
people in the province, grow our economy, fight underdevelopment and move our
province closer to realizing the objective to halve poverty and unemployment by
2014. I am confident that all the matters I have raised will be attended to and
discussed by this congress to the best of its abilities.

I therefore wish Agri North West constructive deliberations, fruitful
resolutions and a successful Annual Congress.

Allow me in conclusion to return to the very words of the Archbishop that we
quoted earlier on: "Let us become what we are the rainbow people of God, proud
of our diversity, celebrating our differences that make not for separation and
alienation but for a gloriously rich unity."

I wish you a successful Annual Congress once more and thank you for your
attention.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
5 September 2006