Weekly neWs Wrap
ABOVE:
Agri SA expects its
partnership with
a private security
company to go a
long way towards
curbing rural crime
across South Africa.
FW ARCHIVE22 farmer’sweekly 2 August 2019
The Western Cape Agriculture
Department has announced the launch
of the 2019 Prestige Agri Awards, a
competition aimed at recognising
the hard work and dedication of the
province’s agricultural workforce.
According to Dr Ivan Meyer, Western
Cape MEC for Agriculture, the
competition acknowledged agricultural
workers in 11 categories and 16 districts
for the important contribution they
made to the sector in the Western Cape.
Speaking at the event, Meyer paid
tribute to those who worked hard to
ensure that agriculture continued tobe one of the largest economic and
job creation drivers in the province.
“Farmworkers play a significant
role in the Western Cape economy
and in agricultural production.
They put so much of their energy
into ensuring that there is food
security, that there is foreign
exchange coming into the country
from exports, and that they can
provide for their families,” he said.
Since the awards were established
in 2002 by the Hex River Valley
Association, the department had
seen its popularity grow, witha total of 12 000 agri workers
having participated since then.
The regional winners will compete
for the provincial awards to be held
in November, where the overall
agricultural worker of the year
will be crowned. The winner
will walk away with a R25 000
cash prize, an overseas trip to the
value of R60 000, an iPad, Shoprite
vouchers, data, and a place on the
prestigious agri worker board,
which meets Meyer every quarter
to discuss challenges facing the
sector. – Jeandré van der WaltlabourSearch for Western Cape’s best agri worker kicks off
A partnership between
Agri SA and private security
company Fidelity ADT, aimed
at helping farming businesses
countrywide protect themselves
better against crime, is gaining
momentum. Discussions to
establish the partnership began
in early 2018 in response to
the ongoing and increasing
problem of attacks, murders,
robberies and theft on farms.
Kobus Visser, Agri SA’s policy
head for rural safety, told Farmer’s
Weekly that Fidelity ADT was
ideally placed and resourced to
work with Agri SA, its provincial
affiliates and members to develop,
provide and support farm
security systems and processes
for improved rural safety.
Visser said that the partnership
between Agri SA and Fidelity
ADT intended to work with
smaller rural security companies
across the country. Many had
been operating at the local
level for several years and, as a
result, had strong community
relationships and on-the- ground
information networks.
“Fidelity ADT is able to offer
modern security packages for
farming operations, and can
link these to a central database
for analysis of crime-related
information and trends. The
results of an analysis can be sent
back to the local farm security
network to help them better deal
with any rural safety issues. This
partnership fits in with the Rural
Safety Strategy and has received
the approval of the South African
Police Service leadership,” Visser
said. He added that Agri SA and
Fidelity ADT were undertaking
roadshows to introduce ther ural safety
Private rural
security
partnership
gains
momentum
partnership and highlight its
intentions to farmers in various
provinces. Agri SA affiliates in
the Northern Cape, the Free State,
Gauteng and the Eastern Cape
had already expressed interest.
“We’ll be working closely
with the various farm watches,
local security companies and
farmers’ associations to help
upskill them and empower
them with valuable security
insights in areas such as citizen’s
arrests, reporting of suspicious
behaviour, land grabbing,
industrial unrest, stock theft,
training in various safety
aspects, and the like,” said Wahl
Bartmann, CEO of Fidelity
Services Group, which owns
Fidelity ADT. – Lloyd Phillips