It was with great pleasure and excitement that we read about the achievements of Dr Karabo Mabe in The New Age newspaper today (Tuesday, 15 May 2012).
On behalf of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the entire South African government we would like to send our sincerest congratulations to Dr Mabe for being the first black woman to get a PhD in agricultural economics.
Dr Mabe qualified from the University of the North West, where she is also a lecturer, research supervisor and programme coordinator for the agricultural economics and extension programme at the Mafikeng Campus of the same university. The success of Dr Mabe comes at a time when we have been emphasising the importance of the agriculture sector as well as the urgency to attract more black people and specifically women and youth into agriculture. We hope her success will be motivation for many others.
There is a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure food security in South Africa and education is at the heart of the work we need to do. As it is, South Africa is lagging behind in the production of agricultural extension officers, a matter that has direct impact in the country's ability to produce food both to feed itself and to sell for the betterment of our economy.
That said, Dr Mabe's is another sad indictment on how agriculture has not done enough to attract women, especially black women. This does not bode well for a country that needs to grow its agricultural outputs. The more Mabes we can produce the better.
My office will be inviting Dr Mabe to our consultative delivery forum which we host every quarter. We would like for her to be part of this forum in her capacity as an agricultural economist, but also someone who represents a constituency that is critical to our sector.
For more information please contact:
Mr Selby Bokaba
Chief Director: Stakeholder Relations and Communication
Cell: 082 778 0245
