Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon launched an ”Agriculture Matters” campaign during a visit to the eastern Free State’s rural farming communities on Wednesday, the party said.
”As a positive contribution to addressing the deep concerns of our farming communities, the DA is today proud to launch its ‘Agriculture Matters’ campaign,” Leon said near Ficksburg after a fly over of the border area with Lesotho.
”This initiative, which will be headed by our agriculture and land affairs spokespersons, Dr Kraai van Niekerk MP and Maans Nel MP, will seek closer relations with the broader agricultural community.”
According to Leon, in the coming months the campaign will provide the farming community with a forum to express their concerns to the party.
”It will also see the launch of an interactive website that will serve both as a portal for information and a means of maintaining ongoing communication.”
Leon was visiting the area to speak to farmers and rural communities. The opposition leader on Wednesday morning flew over the area and was expected to visit farms along the border and speak to farmers during the rest of his visit.
The party said of particular concern in the eastern Free State, as in other provinces with an international border, was cross-border crime, which poses a considerable danger not only to the safety of the farming community, but to the growth and productivity of the sector.
The DA said the last census of commercial agriculture revealed that the Free State suffered a loss of nearly R100-million in 2002 from stock theft, pilfering, burglary and the theft of crops.
The province has the country’s second-highest rate of stock theft, with almost 4 500 such incidents recorded in 2005/06.
”Action is needed. Now, not later,” a DA statement read.
Leon said it was also indefensible that government remained intent on disbanding the commando system by 2009.
He said if the government was committed to rural safety it would not have consider the closure of the commando units until it had put in place an alternative protection force.
”The creation of a security vacuum, when no active protection force is in place, will leave our rural communities even more vulnerable then they are at present.”
Leon said the party’s campaign would address these and other material issues to ensure farmers and farm workers alike a safer, more full and productive future.
Leon was accompanied by the party’s Free State leader Andries Botha, eastern Free State MP Roy Jankielsohn, Kraai van Niekerk and DA spokesperson on rural safety Ryno King. — Sapa