Administration Dina Pule, Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature
29 May 2007
Madame Speaker, Honourable Mrs Phosa
Deputy Speaker, Honourable BJ Nobunga
Premier of our Province, Honourable TSP Makwetla
Members of the Executive Council
Members of the Provincial Legislature
Acting Head of the Department, Philemon Mathebula and other heads of
departments
Mpumalanga Land Claims Commissioner Peter Mhangwani
Chief Executive of the Mpumalanga Agricultural Development Corporation (MADC)
Veli Mahlangu and heads of public entities
The leadership of organised labour
Traditional leaders
Comrades and friends
Invited guests
Madam Speaker, we are standing before this house today a few days after the
celebration of Africa Day by the continent, South Africa as a country and by
this province last Friday, 25 May 2007, marking the 44 years of the formation
of the Organisation of African Unity. We wish to congratulate Ghana for their
50th Anniversary of Independence.
It is therefore proper for us to remember the greatest sons of Africa,
torches of the light of freedom in the continent, such as Nkwame Nkrumah,
Mwalimu Nyerere, Chief Albert Luthuli, Jomo Kenyatta, Kenneth Kaunda, Samora
Machel, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela.
"Though I speak of Africa as a single entity, it is divided in many ways by
race, language, history and custom; by political, economic and ethnic
frontiers. But in truth, despite these multiple divisions, Africa has a single
common purpose and a single goal to overcome the legacy of economic
backwardness; all Africa has this single aim; our goal is a united Africa in
which the standards of life and liberty are constantly expanding; in which the
ancient legacy of illiteracy and disease is swept aside, in which the dignity
of man is rescued from beneath the heels of colonialism which have trampled
it."
Honourable members, I just lifted an extract from the speech made by Nobel
Laureate Inkosi Albert Luthuli during his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize
in Oslo on the 11 December 1961.
In order for us to advance Africa's goal of a better life for her people, we
heeded Oliver Tambo's call of 1971 that says "Let us arm ourselves with the
willpower and fearlessness of Shaka: the endurance and vision of Moshoeshoe:
the courage and resourcefulness of Sekhukhuni; the tenacity and valour of
Hintsa; the military initiative and guerrilla tactics of Maqoma, the
farsightedness and dedication of S P Makgatho, Sol Plaatjies, Langalibalele
Dube, Isaka ka Seme, W B Rubusana, Meshach Pelem, Alfred Mangena, Paramount
Chief Letsie II of Lesotho and all founding-fathers of the African National
Congress. Let the dream of Moshoeshoe who cherished a great alliance of African
people to resist their separate conquest come true in our lifetime."
Madam Speaker, we are renewing our pledge in a national partnership to
create a better life for all. We intend fighting poverty by making agriculture
fashionable, whilst greening the province and ensuring that communities make
money from waste. We are mindful of the warning in the Book of Proverbs that he
who mocks the poor shows contempt for their maker; whoever gloats over disaster
will not go unpunished.
Most of our people see and appreciate the positive strides that the
democratic government has made thus far. In their hearts and minds freedom has
come to symbolise their dream of today being better than yesterday because
services are being delivered, their cousin has just received a house, their
uncle has just received implements and inputs to till the land and their
daughter will be a veterinarian in the not so distant future.
We are however mindful of the challenges ahead. The farsightedness of Pixley
Ka Seme and the hard work of Gert Sibande tell us that much still needs to be
done to create conditions in which all can thrive irrespective of who they are
and where they stay.
Honourable Speaker, with the willpower and fearlessness of Shaka we will
meet the challenge of giving back our children a world of beauty and wonder by
protecting the environment. We will ensure that for generations to come streams
will be streams, rivers remain sources of water and that water scarcity remains
impossible.
With the courage and resourcefulness of Sekhukhuni we will continue
mobilising communities behind environmental management. Creatively and
patiently we will continue to invite industry to play its role in reducing
greenhouse gas emissions. Industry stands to benefit a lot from this
endeavour.
In the past financial year we achieved notable successes which includes
amongst others the planting of 7 916 trees in the province, environmental
improvement of 117 schoolyards and community areas in partnership with
stakeholders. We were able to complete the Gert Sibande Integrated Waste
Management Plan, and the Mpumalanga Biodiversity Conservation Plan.
Mpumalanga has taken a leading role in implementing the resolution of the
World Summit on Sustainable Development. We have held a conference on the
Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, action plans stemming from
this conference have been drawn, the arduous task of implementation has already
begun.
With the tenacity and valour of Hintsa we moved away from the realm of high
and technical language into the sphere of common sense and understandable
language. We are overcoming the historical thinking that has been inculcated
into our people that because they are poor, therefore they lack the skill,
knowledge and capital to deal with their problems. The belief that a solution
will come from somewhere is slowly diminishing. Siyatentela. A belief that
sustainable development is everyone's concern is emerging on the horizon.
As known trailblazers and travellers of the untravelled road we have
committed ourselves to extract as much economic value as we can out of waste;
with the military initiative and guerrilla tactics of Maqoma we intend reducing
waste generation and disposal by 50% and 25% respectively by 2012.
Recycling is to be the order and practice of every household in the
province. Greening Mpumalanga requires everyone to be a green consumer by
purchasing material that is environmentally friendly.
One of the fundamental challenges our country faces is addressing the
inequities of the past. These inequities are most glaring in terms of access to
land and land rights. It should be remembered that the African majority were
forced to have 13 percent of the land whilst the white minority had 87 percent
prior to 1994.
Government's approach to this issue is premised on our constitutional
principles of property rights. However the willing buyer and seller principle
is not assisting the country to move with the speed needed to realise the goal
of delivering 30 percent of agricultural land to the African majority by 2010.
The principle cannot mediate between the majority's hunger for land and the
minority's quest to protect what has come to be its livelihood; as a result in
the past eleven years we have witnessed less than desirable delivery of hectors
of land.
As an attempt to circumvent this hiccup, the Minister of Agriculture and
Land Affairs Honourable Lulu Xingwana introduced intervention mechanisms which
include among others the concept of Proactive Acquisition of Land whose primary
objective is to fast-track access to land, particularly for the previously
disadvantaged individuals. Mpumalanga has excelled in implementing this
concept. Mpumalanga has also excelled in the delivery of land restitution in
the year 2006; Land Claims Commissioner Mr Peter Mhangwani and his staff
members were able to spend the entire budget allocated to the province and the
additional allocations from other provinces.
Notable good practices are emerging out of the land reform process where we
see the established commercial farmers joining hands to help new beneficiaries
after acquiring land. South Africans have a tendency to rise to the occasion,
'As South Africa is alive with possibilities.' In Emalahleni, Honourable
speaker, a farmer sold his farm to help in the fight against HIV and AIDS to a
project that helps with food production for people living with the virus. The
farmer remained on the farm as manager whilst the new owners were learning the
ropes. We wish to encourage other farmers to follow in his example.
The Matsafeni Trust, one of the biggest land reform projects has refuted
criticism of land reform by gaining Euro Gap accreditation, an envy of many
commercial farmers; the accreditation is for free trade with European
countries. The Euro Gap accreditation is only granted after the applicant has
fulfilled strict requirements and standards of the European Union Trade
Commission. Part of the requirement is to meet high production standards,
quality assurance, sound environmental practices just to name a few.
Mpumalanga is also home to one of the biggest land claim settlements in the
country, Tenbosch in Nkomazi, the value of this claim is R1,1 billion and
involves 32 387 hectares of commercial agricultural land. We believe that the
beneficiaries will follow the example of Matsafeni by going beyond the current
yield of the land.
Madam Speaker, my colleague, Honourable MEC Masuku, in his Policy and Budget
Speech of 2006/07 financial year, argued that for the battle for long term
economic development to be ultimately won, we would have to continue, in our
day-to-day work, to respond to the following set of questions:
* What is it that we should do more to increase agricultural output and
productivity substantially to the direct benefit of the average small farmer
and the landless rural dweller whilst providing a sufficient food surplus to
support an urban, industrial sector?
* What else should we do to transform the traditional low-productivity peasant
farms into high-productivity commercial enterprises?
Additional to these questions we must answer the cries of our women in the
rural areas who are in the majority but continue to report minimal access to
government support and services. We also have to bring the prime industry of
our country's development, the youth into the fold; they also must enjoy the
fresh fruits of liberation.
Madam Speaker, we can travel a different road, a road that no one else has
travelled. At the end of it the world will proclaim a miracle, but we know that
it is the beginning of the fulfilment of the dream. We have armed ourselves
with the endurance and vision of Moshoeshoe. We will have to attack poverty
with military precision, as the Sepedi saying goes, 'moomo o thaba matsogo'
(work produces results), poverty will give way to wealth and prosperity, a
better life for all is fast becoming a new feature of our country.
Madame Speaker, as the honourable Premier recounted the analogy of the male
lion and the buffalo bull in the State of the Province Address, we also fell
into a similar situation. The honourable Premier recounted as follows:
"Madam Speaker, when an over-enthusiastic hasty male lion isolates a
buffalo-bull for a showdown, and in the process acts recklessly in anticipation
of its glorious conquest, it will invariably take few knocks each time it
forgets that it must never find itself in front of the buffalo-bull. Even if at
the end, the episode ends with the buffalo-bull's neck broken and its huge
carcass shining lifelessly under the sun, the lion may temporarily lie under
the shade without much energy and appetite for its glorious kill, and nurse its
sore muscles from punishment incurred during the uncalculating and reckless
moments of the attack."
In the previous financial year we set ourselves a priority of developing a
Mpumalanga Agricultural Development Plan, a plan that will guide all
agricultural activities towards a common agricultural growth trajectory,
directly responding to the question of what more we must do to increase
agricultural output and productivity substantially. We had not measured the
enormity of the task; to date we have been unable to produce the plan within
the set timeframe. However, I am pleased to inform this house that significant
progress has been made particularly at the level of the local economy, work has
been completed in what we call 'An Agro-based Local Economic Development (LED)
model,' which allows those involved in agriculture in their various commodities
to raise issues that affect them at the lowest level of governance, the
municipal ward. This truly puts development in the hands of the people where
they live.
What is more crucial about this model is its emphasis on joint planning
among all spheres of government, using the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) as
a common point of reference for all stakeholders.
Each municipality already has dedicated extension officers from the
department and it is expected that municipalities will dedicate a councillor to
drive this model. We will continue to move with haste to bring other
stakeholders such as the agro industry on board to drive the process
forward.
Work has already started on the complex task of producing the Provincial
Agricultural Development Plan that has eluded us in the previous financial
year, before the end of this financial year we aim to complete the task, and
start with the arduous task of implementation.
We had to follow the far sightedness of the founding fathers of the congress
movement. The military initiative and guerrilla tactics of Maqoma dictated that
our forces could not continue scattering in all directions, we had to change
course.
Like a pack of hyenas going for the kill we adopted an integrated focused
approach, an approach that places the agricultural and environmental sector at
the centre of economic growth and development.
We have selected to place emphasis on commodities, value adding, demand
driven projects that ensure that farmers benefit from the entire value chain
including backward and forward linkages like a real spider web, ensuring
optimal impact.
In the 2006/07 financial year, we promised to conduct feasibility studies
for different commodities to identify opportunities and to further package
bankable projects for our farmers, especially emerging farmers.
We have done this as the honourable Premier announced during the State of
the Province address that key commodities have been identified to maximise
agricultural growth potential. Thus far, together with the private sector
involved in the identified commodities, we have managed to conclude feasibility
studies with regards to sugarcane, livestock, apples and macadamia. These
Anchor Projects are of high value as they add other spin-offs such as agro
processing and packaging to the mix.
Madam Speaker, the province is exporting both agricultural produce and live
stock to generate revenue and subsequently contribute to economic growth.
Following the farsightedness and dedication of S P Makgatho, Sol Plaatjies,
Langalibalele Dube, Isaka ka Seme, W B Rubusana, Meshach Pelem, Alfred Mangena,
Paramount Chief Letsie II of Lesotho and all founding-fathers of the Congress
movement our Veterinary services ensured that the province remains free of
diseases.
Extensive surveys were conducted to determine the prevalence of animal
diseases. Random surveys to confirm the absence of diseases such as avian
influenza and classical swine fever were conducted on 143 poultry and 143 pig
farms. I am pleased to report that the province has been free from these
diseases. Furthermore our experts were involved at National level with the
management of foot and mouth disease, as well as to manage classical swine
fever in the Eastern Cape.
In order to ensure that all rural communities of the province have access to
quality Veterinary Clinical Service and animal healthcare, eight new dip tanks,
nine new handling facilities and four new animal health centres were completed
in the past financial year.
We call on communities to optimally utilise these services for the comfort
of their companion animals.
Madam Speaker and honourable members, food safety, especially the safety of
meat and meat products remains a priority. In the 2007/08 financial year the
department in partnership with the Department of Safety and Security, the
Department of Health and Social Services and local municipalities, will
intensify the campaign to address illegal slaughtering of meat that is sold at
pension payout points whose safety cannot be guaranteed. This illegal
slaughtering often promotes stock theft, and the uncertified meat may have a
negative impact on the health of those who consume it as it may be infected
with diseases.
In her poem 'Grond' from her book 'Down to my last skin,' Antjie Krog
says:
"Onder bevele van my voorgeslagte was jy besit
had ek taal kon ek skryf want jy was grond my grond
grond wat my nie wou he nie
grond wat ek vergeefser as vroeer liefhet
Under orders from my ancestors you were occupied
had I language I could write for you were land my land
I want to go underground with you land
land that would not have me
land that I love more fruitlessly than before."
Mma Nomlomo, besesingalali nebusuku, sivuswa libhudango elimbi lomtrwana
olambako, abomma ababulawa yitjhirho netjhono, abobaba abajika nelanga ngombana
kungana litho abangalenza. Ithando labo lenarha libenza bafune ukuyibhalela
incwadi njengo Antjie Krog. Sabona ukuthi ngombana inarha ngiyokuphela intro
ebanayo. Sabuyela ekadeni lapho kweli ka Nobhalarhana umrhogo wawustjhebo,
ubrotho buhlala bungerageni. Sahloma ijima lika Masibuyel' emasimini, kwathi
labo abenemvanjana sabanikela imbewu, irharafu, ilembe, nehariga ukuthi bakwazi
ukizilimela bararhe umthlago.
We could not sleep at night, in the still of the night we would wake up
sweating because images of young ones suffering from malnutrition, women
bearing abject poverty, men timing the sun's movement as they have nothing to
do will be fresh on our minds.
Due to their love of land, like Antjie Krog they wished that they had
language so that they could write to the land. We established the Masibuyel'
emasimini programme and gave seeds, a rake, a spade and a hoe to those with
patches of land so that they could till the land to burnish hunger.
These programmes focus on individuals who have land at their disposal. We
provide the necessary support that will enable these individuals to utilise the
land optimally for their own subsistence and income generation. Moomo o thaba
matsogo ari yeng ro lima.
We were piloting this concept with one key objective in mind, to inculcate
Ilimo/Letsema principles to our people who own small pieces of land that they
could utilise for household and small scale farming.
The Masibuyel' emasimini programme is producing positive results by
promoting social cohesiveness and making it easier for the mobilisation for
corporative movement, it yields better outputs, more land is being tilled and
productivity has increased, new opportunities have been generated as backward
and forward linkage and downstream opportunities occur, maize mills are now
established in Daggakraal and Matibidi.
The positive gains of the programme far outweigh the minor unintended
negatives such as the conflicts over implements and delays in the delivery of
tractors. In the 2007/08 financial year, we will intensify the implementation
of this programme ensuring that all negative tendencies are managed and dealt
with. We hope to see these peasant farmers develop, and are assisted to be
commercial farmers in the not so distant future.
Madame Speaker, we continue to work tirelessly through combining research,
technology and veterinary services to improve livestock production in the
province.
As we have changed course and adopted an integrated focused approach, we
have been working with commercial farmers to introduce improved cattle breeds
for the benefit of emerging farmers. We have successfully introduced the
sangari cattle and we are making great strides in the boran project that we
spoke about in the last financial year.
We are hard at work together with the Industrial Development Corporation of
South Africa (IDC) to reintroduce indigenous livestock to farming areas of the
province. We are pleased to announce that through this collaboration the
beautiful colourful Nguni breed is making its way back into the kraals of the
province. The Industrial Development Corporation will inject R3,2 million into
the project.
The project is premised on the principles of Ukusisa wherein participants
will be given cattle to raise and be expected to pay back into the scheme the
same number of cattle they received after five years. The project combines
extension and veterinary support from government, technology transfer by
participating universities, funding by the IDC, and community participation by
emerging farmers.
As part of our contribution to the Expanded Public Works Programme through
Land Care, we will continue ensuring that communities in the deepest rural
areas of our province create their own employment opportunities whilst caring
for the land by preventing soil erosion. Deliberately we will be targeting more
young men and women in villages that are affected by soil erosion, transferring
skills to these young people so that they can stand on their own.
Through the structures of Women in Agriculture and Rural Development (WARD),
we will provide more support to rural women. We will ensure that they are at
the centre of rural development; government development programmes must benefit
this important sector of our society, and they cannot continue reporting
minimal access to government support and services.
The level of youth participation in agriculture remains unsatisfactory; in
this regard we will hold a Youth in Agriculture Summit during the month of June
2007. Out of this summit we hope to emerge with a five year plan that young
people themselves would have crafted to guide us as we bring them into the
fold.
We have committed ourselves to doing things differently thereby improving
agricultural output. Our vision is to grow emerging farmers into commercial
farmers. The improvement of farming infrastructure remains central to our
quest. We will continue to provide support to emerging farmers to develop
farming infrastructure such as dams, irrigation systems, fences and farm
structures to enhance farm productivity.
Madame Speaker, tenure upgrading plays an important role in the development
of communities. Land ownership is one of the most secure forms of surety,
therefore many of the communities in the former homelands and other townships
have been denied this opportunity as the land is held in trust by somebody
else. We are however, pleased to announce that more than 6 000 title deeds will
become available for distribution to the residents of Ekangala F, Gutshwa and
Kwaggafontein A this financial year.
Honourable members, all of us like to share the joy of life with our beloved
and acquaintances. We like to gaze at the open sky, listen to the sound of the
water falls and dance to tunes of the singing bird. In our hour of misery,
hopelessness and anguish we turn to Mother Nature for relief. However some of
our behaviour and attitude shows little appreciation for this important pillar
of our livelihoods.
We chase wealth at all costs, listening to the get rich demon that President
Mbeki spoke about during the recent Nelson Mandela lecture. Like the gold
hoarder that Lebanese Poet Khalil Gibran speaks about in his book titled 'A
Tear and A Smile,' we are going to discover that yesterday we were so rich in
happiness and today we are poor in gold, as we would have degraded our
environment to death. Sustainable development remains the key to riches in
happiness and gold.
Our environmental initiatives should not only urge communities to recycle,
but must show them how they can improve their lives and gain skills by caring
for the environment. Communities need to be taught how they can refurbish and
repair apparatus so that they can sell them for a profit.
Greening Mpumalanga is our ultimate priority this financial year as the
Honourable Premier announced during the state of the province address. Various
interventions and programmes will be implemented in the Bushbuckridge nodal
point to stimulate economic growth and fight poverty.
2007/08 Budget outlook
Earlier on as a people and a country, we took the road around the yellow
wood that many have never travelled. Upon us reaching our destination the world
proclaimed a miracle, for us the journey had just began.
The prophecy in the book of Isaiah had come to be fulfilled, the people
walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the
shadow of death a light has dawned. Light has dawned on us hence we will be
fighting poverty by making agriculture accessible to all whilst greening the
Province and ensuring that communities make money from waste.
The proposed budget allocation for the financial year 2007 /08 to the
Department of Agriculture and Land Administration is R621 073 000 00.
The budget will cover the following programmes:
1. Administration
Administration includes the Office of the Member of the Executive Council
(MEC), Management Services, Corporate Services and Finance.
The programme will be allocated R68 705 000 million to invest in human
capital and physical assets to produce world class administrative support.
2. Sustainable Resource Management
Sustainable resource management is responsible for efficient engineering and
resource management which involves largely irrigation development, land care,
soil care, veld and water care.
The programme will be allocated R42 774 000 of which R21 million will be
used to address soil degradation in areas such as Bushbuckridge, and other
areas affected by soil erosion. The Land Care Programme will contribute to the
massification of the Expanded Public Works Programme as called for by the
President.
3. Farmer Support Services
During this financial year Farmer Support Service will place much emphasis
on the support of emerging farmers. We intend giving them a foot in high value
markets such as essential oils, apples, sugarcane and macadamia by investing in
rural infrastructure necessary to generate high outputs.
The programme will be allocated R276 750 000.
R39 million of the allocated amount will be allocated to the Mpumalanga
Agricultural Development Corporation (MADC) to carry out its mandate of
empowering and developing emerging farmers through credit finance, business
skills development and entrepreneurial development. Since its inception the
MADC has provided credit finance to develop farmers who otherwise would not
have received such assistance to the value of over R 150 million. The expertise
that is available in MADC will be drawn in to manage the high impact projects
of the Department in areas such as apples, macadamia, poultry production to
name but a few.
The Comprehensive Agricultural Support Program (CASP) conditional grant
allocation of R41 million has been made available to develop farm
infrastructure and to increase the production capacity of farms particularly
those acquired through land reform. The province has made available an amount
of R43 million to match the conditional grant amount. The total amount
available for investing in farm infrastructure for the benefit of emerging
farmers, particularly land reform is R84 million.
Indeed land reform beneficiaries are being assisted to sustain agricultural
production. Moomo o thaba matsogo, lehumo le tshwa temong, phezu komkhono
masibuyel' emasimini. The Masibuyel� emasimini programme has been allocated R
30 million to grow peasant farmers to grow food thereby pushing back the
frontiers of poverty.
4. Veterinary Services
Veterinary services will continue dealing with the challenges of animal
health, veterinary clinical service and food safety. This will include among
other things, the monitoring and surveillance of exotic, new and emerging
animal diseases and the roll out of clinical services in all areas that have no
private veterinarians.
The programme will receive R50 134 000 million
5. Research and Technology Development
Madam Speaker an amount of R22 740 000 00 will be allocated to this
programme to continue the work of testing plant adaptation and improving the
agricultural yield.
6. Agricultural Economics
Agricultural economics will be allocated an amount of R26 496 000 million to
pursue its role in terms of agri-business development and market information
dissemination.
R19 million of this amount will be set aside to establish rural
infrastructure for value adding this will include projects such as on farm feed
mills, maize mills and pack houses.
7. Structured Agricultural Training
In order to speed up the implementation of Agricultural Education and
Training Programmes, an amount of R34 542 000 million will be allocated to this
programme.
8. Environmental Services
R49 318 000 00 will be allocated to Environmental Services which consists of
Environmental Education, Environmental Impact Assessment, pollution and waste
control.
The implementation of Greening Mpumalanga, an aspect of the Heritage,
Greening, and Tourism Flagship project announced by the Honourable Premier
during the state of the province address will continue to receive attention in
the department.
We are engaging stakeholders in the private sector, non-governmental
organisation (NGOs) and local government in order to establish common
understanding on practical ways to green Mpumalanga, a projected additional R28
million will be required for the 2007/08 financial year.
9. Land Administration
The Land Administration Programme will be allocated an amount of R16 614 000
00 to facilitate processes aimed at tenure upgrading and town
establishment.
Madam Speaker, having outlined the proposed budget allocations for our
programmes, we request the house to consider the approval of this budget.
Mavoko a ya mili byanyi, work produces results. Honourable members allow me
the indulgence of using the words of Lebanese Poet and Philosopher Khalil
Gibran in his poem 'Good and Evil.'
"Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it
thirsts, it drinks even of dead waters. And a ship without rudder may wander
aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.
For when you strive for gain you are but a root that clings to the earth and
sucks at her breast. Surely the fruit cannot say to the root, 'Be like me, ripe
and full and ever giving of your abundance.
For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root, you
are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps."
Indeed our feet are firmly planted and pointed towards the rising sun, we
are walking towards our goal of a better life for all with bold steps. With
haste we want to turn things around. We have heard the cries that every body
should feel and see that today is better than yesterday and tomorrow will be
far much better than today.
Honourable Speaker, let me express my appreciation to the Honourable Premier
for his support, my colleagues in the Executive Council, the Portfolio
Committee on Agriculture and Land Administration; Economic Development and
Planning under the able leadership of Honourable PC Ngwenya, members of the
house for their oversight and support.
My appreciation goes to the agricultural unions, especially Mr Koot Klaasen
of Agri Mpumalanga and Mr Motsepe Matlala of National African Farmers Union
(NAFU) for their constructive engagement and continued contribution to the
improvement of agriculture.
Let me also thank the Acting Head of Department Mr Philemon Mathebula, his
staff and the Chief Executive Officer of the MADC Mr Veli Mahlangu and his
staff. The Mpumalanga Land Claims Commissioner, Mr Peter Mhangwani and his
staff.
We also want to thank sister departments working in unison with the
Department of Agriculture and Land Administration. My appreciation also goes to
the staff in my office for their daily unwavering support and patience. Lastly,
Honourable Speaker, my gratitude goes to my family for their continued support
at all times.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Agriculture and Land Administration, Mpumalanga
Provincial Government
29 May 2007
