Attending the funeral service of the late Mr Eugene Ney Terre’Blanche, the Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ms Tina Joemat-Pettersson called for mature leadership to ensure that the non-racist and non-sexist democracy of the past 16 years is not reversed but preserved to grow stronger.
"We have come a long way towards working for our democracy, building national cohesion and we should not find ourselves loosing these gains now." Minister Joemat-Pettersson said after attending the funeral and burial service today.
Minister reiterated that we remain committed to fighting violent crimes on farms, be it against farm owners, farm workers and farm dwellers. We cannot afford to have any form of violence and insecurity in our farm areas especially now that we have to continue increasing production and ensuring food security.
"We have to uproot the demon of racism in our country and only we South Africans can do that," minister added.
The department has already started conducting farm worker summits in the provinces, with the aim of encouraging debates on issues that affect these food production areas.
Minister called upon all farming communities to build a culture of tolerance in which the human rights is respected and rule of law applies especially in the protection and caring of farm workers. This will see us making headway into protecting our farming communities.
"The incident is a terrible reminder of the work that we still need to continue to do to ensure that all South Africans are and feel safe." Minister Joemat-Pettersson concluded.
For enquiries:
P Tsotso Sehoole
Tel: 012 319 6043 or 7317
Fax: 012 319 7858
Cell: 083 265 8728
E-mail: CCO@daff.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
9 April 2010
