2018/19 Financial Year Budget Vote Speech of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development – Vote 4 delivered by the Member of the Executive Council, Mr Seaparo Sekoati to the Limpopo Provincial Legislature
Honourable Speaker, Polly Boshielo
Honourable Premier, Stanley Chupu Mathabatha Honourable Deputy Speaker, Lehlogonolo Masoga Honourable colleagues in the Executive Council Chief Whip of the Majority Party, Falaza Mdaka Honourable Members of the Provincial Legislature Leaders of Political Parties present here today
Limpopo House of Traditional Leaders, Led by Kgoshi Malesela Dikgale Magoshi, Tihosi, Vho-Thovele
Members of the Limpopo Agricultural Advisory Board
Officials of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development
Officials from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and other Departments
Representatives of the Farming Community and Civil Society Organisations Representatives of the Business Sector and other Sectoral Partners Members of the Media
Distinguished Guests Ladies and Gentlemen
This year we celebrate the centenary of the birth of our icon Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela under theme, “Years of Nelson Mandela: The year of renewal, unity and jobs.”
Elaborating on this theme, the African National Congress National Executive Committee in the statement issued on the occasion of the 106th anniversary of Africa’s oldest liberation movement, had this to say:
“We shall work to rekindle Madiba’s vision of a democratic society in which all citizens have equal opportunity to determine their own destiny. We shall achieve this not only through strengthening the instruments of representative and participatory democracy; but also by ensuring that people have economic opportunities and the ability to make choices about their own lives.”
Madam Speaker, we have a duty to deliver on this clarion call to change the lives of our people for the better as envisaged by our forebears in 1955 when they adopted the Freedom Charter in Kliptown, Johannesburg. To shirk this duty would be a betrayal of Madiba’s dream of a better South Africa.
We rise before this august house today to give flesh to Madiba’s dream as we table Budget Vote 4 of the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (LDARD) for the 2018/2019 financial year.
As we go into details of our reflections of the past financial year and projections for the 2018/2019 Financial year, permit me to draw from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered on 16 February 2018. I will cite parts of the SONA which reflects on the mandate of Agriculture and Rural Development.
President Ramaphosa said on the occasion:
“Agriculture presents one of the greatest opportunities to significantly grow our economy and create jobs.
“Agriculture made the largest contribution, by a significant margin, to the improved growth in the second and third quarters of 2017.”
Flowing from the afore-mentioned policy pronouncements, the Department will do what it takes to fully realise the greatest opportunities the sector offers in the Province to contribute to our industrialisation trajectory and sustainable economic growth.
President Ramaphosa also elaborated on land expropriation without compensation. In the words of President Ramaphosa, this motion is a measure to deal with the “original sin” of the land having been taken by the colonial and apartheid regimes from black people.
“This year, we will take decisive action to realise the enormous economic potential of agriculture.’
“We will accelerate our land distribution programme not only to address grave a grave historical injustice, but also to bring more producers into the agricultural sector and to make more land available for cultivation.
“We will pursue a comprehensive approach that makes effective use of all mechanisms at our disposal.
“Guided by the resolutions of the 54th National Conference of the governing party, this approach will include the expropriation of land without compensation.
“We are determined that expropriation without compensation should be implemented in a way that increases agricultural production, improves food security and ensure that land is returned to those whom it was taken under colonialism and apartheid. “Government will undertake a process of consultation to determine the modalities of the implementation of this resolution.
“We make a special call to financial institutions to be our partners in mobilising resources to accelerate the land redistribution programme as increased investment will be needed in this sector.”
It is no coincidence that land dominates national discourse. This year marks 105 years since the 1913 Land Act and 95 years since the Natives Urban Areas Act. These two pieces of legislation were central to the deprivation of black South Africans of their land, assets and livelihoods. Land expropriation without compensation seeks to redress over a century of land dispossession.
The pronouncements made Premier Chupu Stanley Mathabatha during the State of the Province Address (SOPA) on agriculture and rural development will find further expression during the course of our Budget Speech. Issues raised by the Hon Premier are Fetsa Tlala, support to households’ food security initiatives, support to communal and land reform projects and the establishment of Farmer Production Support Units (FPSU).
The 4th Quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Report of 2017 published by Stats SA indicates that the South African economy grew by 3.1% in the 4th quarter of 2017, following 2% during the 3rd. quarter. This positive growth has been largely driven by the agricultural sector that has shown resilience and positive growth for the past four quarters of 2017.
The agricultural sector growth was enhanced by strong output of different agricultural commodity sub-sectors such as field crops, livestock and horticulture. The agricultural sector suffered eight consecutive quarters of negative growth from the 1stquarter of 2015. The long shrinkage was in the main attributed to drought conditions.
The sector has been on a rebound since the first quarter of 2017. After recording an increase in the first three quarters of 2017 with 26.6%, 36.8%, and 41.2% respectively, the sector continued its upward trajectory by recording 37.5% quarter on quarter growth in the economy in the fourth quarter, though with slight plunge by 6.7%. Read more [PDF]
