MEDIA STATEMENT
BY THE
INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
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Inkatha Freedom Party Statement By:
17 September 2007 The Inkatha Freedom Party is displeased with comments made in the National Assembly last week by the deputy Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister, Dirk du Toit. The Deputy-Minister warned that farmers who evict workers illegally would find their land expropriated by the State under the Provision of Land and Assistance Act. Describing the evictions as a "medieval practice which just continues and continues" Du Toit said his department had the co-operation of at least two agricultural unions on the matter. But it seems Du Toit's statements are not the complete picture and it might be an unfair generalisation. AgriSA and Grain SA are two of the farming unions who spoke out against Du Toit's statements. Agri Gauteng denied Du Toit's accusation, saying that in fact the opposite was true and that the majority of farmers were living in harmony with farm workers and were working together to build a better South Africa. The farming union admitted there was a "very small minority" of farmers who might be guilty of illegally evicting farm workers, but said it was unfair to act as if that is the practice within the entire industry. So in an effort to get the correct information and setting the record straight we placed a question on the parliamentary order paper asking the Minister of Agriculture: how many commercial farmers are there currently in South Africa? How many of these farmers have been found guilty of illegally evicting farm workers or occupiers off their farms during the past year? And how many of these farmers have criminal steps pending for illegally evicting farm workers or occupiers from their farms? The IFP believes that it will be grossly unfair to make such strong statements against the farming community at large, if the accusations are completely unfounded.
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