Durban: 9 March 2009

I cannot overemphasise the importance of agriculture for the future prosperity of this province. Farming is the second largest employer in South Africa after the public sector; it accounts for 17 percent of formal employment and for 46 percent of informal employment.

In KwaZulu Natal, along with tourism, agriculture offers most potential for job creation and economic growth. Our province has ideal conditions for successful agricultural production: we have fertile land, sufficient rainfall and world-class expertise. What is absent is leadership and political will to make agriculture the success it could and should be.

In the past few years, the provincial government has systematically withdrawn its support for emerging farmers and decimated the agricultural production to the point where, in 2007, South Africa became a net importer of agricultural products for the first time in more than 20 years. In addition, millions of Rands spent on land reform projects have been wasted with many farms handed to prospective farmers since 2004 lying abandoned and derelict.

The rot first set in 2001 when ANC-nominated MEC for Agriculture began appointing ANC cronies to the provincial department, causing an exodus of qualified and experienced staff. Since 2004, when the ANC took over the province on its own terms, the KwaZulu Natal Department of Agriculture has effectively been turned into a money-making scheme for contractors aligned to the ANC, eating up taxpayers' money and alienating commercial and emerging farmers alike.

The rot has raised concern even at the national level when Auditor-General Terence Nombembe dubbed the KwaZulu Natal Department of Agriculture late last year as the "most notorious" headache due to unprecedented levels of mismanagement and leadership instability.

Under the mismanagement by former Head of Department Dr Jabulani Mjwara, the Department overspent its budget by a staggering R125-million, with as much as R80-million unaccounted for.  Jobs, lucrative tenders, generous subsidies and golden handshakes went to ANC affiliates, many of them high-profile public representatives.

As the Official Opposition, the IFP made a concerted effort to reverse this decline by exercising its oversight role in the KwaZulu Natal Legislature. Between 2006 and 2007 we brought about an internal audit report which soon grew into a forensic audit report. His report, which confirms rampant mismanagement, fraud, corruption and nepotism in the Department, has since been deliberately withheld from parliamentary - and public - scrutiny.

The background to the outstanding forensic audit report into KZN Agriculture is as follows:

• November 2006 - IFP moved a motion in KZN Legislature calling for investigation into mismanagement at Agriculture

• February 2007 - internal audit was conducted by the Dept internal and quickly grew into forensic audit conducted by Ernst & Young
• June 2007 - forensic audit report was presented to the MEC for Agriculture
• July 2007 - MEC for Finance referred the report to the Scorpions who had an interest in the matter
• April 2007 - Dr Mjwara, Head of Dept at Agriculture (main culprit), resigned to avoid prosecution
• 2007 - February 2009 - provincial govt repeatedly refused to table the report in the Legislature and debate its merits, the only time Legislature dealt with the report was when Finance committee was briefed about its contents by the provincial Treasury (without having access to the actual report)
• February 2009 - IFP called for a debate on a matter of urgent public importance citing the outstanding report, IFP demand was turned by the Speaker's Office

Having exhausted all channels available to the Official Opposition to have the forensic audit report tabled and debated in the Legislature before the end of the current Parliament, we have decided to take the matter to court. 

If the provincial Department of Agriculture is to fulfil its core mandate which is to promote food production and employment in agriculture, its officials must have the necessary experience and expertise; appointment by a political party is not a sufficient qualification. It has to run a tight ship by avoiding fiscal overspending or unauthorised expenditure.

It has to revive some of its most successful projects such as Chase Away Hunger (Xoshindladla) and Vision 2020 (the Green Revolution) piloted by the IFP. In short, the Department of Agriculture has to serve the people of KwaZulu Natal again. Under a new IFP government, it will do just that.

Contact:
Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi,   082 804 7993