Weekly neWsWrap Free State Agriculture Congress
16 farmer’sweekly 23 August 2019
One of the issues discussed at
Free State Agriculture’s (FSA)
annual congress, held recently in
Bloemfontein, was safety and security.
Francois Wilken, president of FSA,
told Farmer’s Weekly that members
raised concerns about livestock
theft, in particular, as a “huge
amount of money is involved”.
Wilken said the state of roads
in the province was also a topic
that was repeatedly raised, as was
the challenges producers faced
with regard to the diesel rebate.
“[One of] the core problems that was
highlighted was that the officials who
needed to investigate claims did not
understand agriculture,” he said.
Wilken said member support,
especially by young entrants,
was also a concern.“Somebody stood up today to say
the young farmers don’t get involved
because when they come to [this]
congress all they hear is a group
of negative old men. My message
to them is that the right thing to
do is to arrive in their masses and
replace the negative old men, or
change the discussion,” he said.
Commenting on the topic of
property rights, Wilken said FSA
had taken a firm stance. “Property
rights in this country will not
be damaged. No expropriation
is acceptable to us,” he said.
Dan Kriek, president of Agri SA,
also emphasised the importance
of property rights, and provided
insight into his involvement in the
Presidential Advisory Panel on
Land Reform and Agriculture.Kriek said that while the report
contained many positives, one of
the problems it had was striking a
balance between agriculture and land
reform. “You cannot just follow a social
approach. You have to [provide] hard
facts and evidence-based arguments, as
well as economic plans on how to get
the private sector involved,” he said.
Commenting on the state of affairs
at FSA, Wilken said they had engaged
with delegates about changes within
the organisation, such as the cost-
cutting measures taken earlier this
year that resulted in the departure of
Gerhard Kriel, former CEO of FSA.
“Members are comfortable; we
are comfortable. There are no
complaints that things are not running
properly, and there are no hard
feelings,” he said. – Sabrina DeanFree State farmers deliberate on safety and stock theft
The land reform debate
dominated discussions on the
first day of the annual Free State
Agriculture (FSA) Congress,
held recently in Bloemfontein.
Speakers included land
reform experts Prof Danie
Brand, director of the Free State
Centre for Human Rights at
the University of the Free State,
and Dr Frans Cronjé, CEO of
the Institute of Race Relations.
Brand and Cronjé unpacked
the land reform issue,
including expropriation
without compensation (EWC),
the amendment process of
Section 25 of the Constitution
to allow for EWC, and the
recently published report by the
Presidential Advisory Panel on
Land Reform and Agriculture.
Brand said he had no doubt
that the Constitution would be
amended in this regard. “The
question that remains is in
what manner and how drastic
that amendment will be.”
He also said that this would not
happen immediately, and that the
newly reappointed Parliamentary
Ad Hoc Committee to Amend
Section 25 of the Constitution,
the same one from the previous
administration, now had
until 31 March 2020 to submit
a draft amendment bill to
Parliament for consideration.“[The committee] is mandated
to investigate an amendment of
Section 25, not one that would
make it possible to expropriate
land without compensation, but
one that would make it clear
that the Constitution already
allows for this,” he said.
Cronjé said that EWC
posed a threat to farmers, the
agriculture sector and the broader
economy, as well as the entire
Constitutional edifice, civil rights
and the rule of law. “I am afraid
that if we do not beat [EWC], weUnpacking land reform issues
risk condemning our country to
a future of failure and poverty.”
The strategies he outlined
were for role players to properly
analyse issues, to organise
themselves through structures
such as Agri SA and FSA, and to
stand firm on their principles.
“Identify the principles for which
you will fight to protect ... Never
fall into the trap of negotiating
on core principles,” he said.
Commenting on the advisory
panel report, Brand said that
while there were many positives,
there were also negatives. One
of his greatest concerns was the
suggestion that expropriation
be used as a focused tool for
reform. “The important problem
in the land reform process
[to date] is not the inability of
the state to acquire land for
reform purposes,” he said.
He added that it did not make
sense to use expropriation to
acquire land for reform as it
would be more time consuming,
costly and difficult than
acquiring land available on
the market. – Sabrina Dean‘we risk
condemning
south africa
to failure and
poverty’