The Democratic Alliance (DA) has called on the department of agriculture to reveal the status of the R3.9 billion blended finance promised to emerging farmers in 2019 following finance minister Tito Mboweni’s 2020 budget speech last month.
During his speech to parliament, Mboweni allocated only R1.2 billion towards emerging farmers – way below the R3.9 billion agreed upon last year.
According to Noko Masipa, a member on the DA’s portfolio committee on agriculture, the recent funding cuts could prove to be detrimental to emerging farmers.
Masipa claims that the money will instead be wasted on unproductive ventures of the now-defunct Land Reform Bank.
“The unwillingness to give the entire budget towards blended finance is a concern. Providing only grant finance to restituted farms has led to many failures and corruption. There has been little transparency between the farmers and the department on money allocated and money received by the farmers - hence the large scale of corruption,” he said.
The funding was intended to help support emerging farmers secure deposits for instalment sales and mortgages.
Masipa said the DA was still waiting to receive answers from either the department of agriculture or minister Thoko Didiza regarding the situation.
