Joemat-Petterson's R4 billion secret
Agriculture Minister, Tina Joemat-Pettersson has once again refused to make public, reports on the state of animal health in South Africa.
Earlier this year, the DA submitted an application to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) requesting copies of reports on the status of animal health in South Africa, including a report from the World Health Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) on Foot and Mouth Disease. This request was denied.
On the 26th of July 2013 the DA submitted another PAIA application, to which we have received a response today, where the Department states that the OIE report was not provided by the organisation. This is in contradiction to a letter from the OIE clearly stating that a detailed assessment has in fact been made available to DAFF.
The Department's denial of the existence of the report is clearly intended to mislead the public about the true status of animal health in South Africa. What is Tina Joemat-Pettersson hiding?
The DA will now request a copy of the report from the OIE directly.
The OIE report contains crucial information about what steps DAFF needs to implement in order for the ban on South Africa's meat and poultry exports to the European Union (EU) to be lifted.
The ban will not be lifted until the issues identified by the OIE are rectified by DAFF. The OIE is scheduled to return at the end of October this year to conduct an inspection and assess whether South Africa's animal health practices meet international standards.
If the department once again fails to meet the requirements of the OIE, the economy could lose at least R4 billion in export revenue and thousands of jobs in the coming year.
Minister Joemat-Pettersson's secrecy must stop. The DA will continue to push for the release of these reports. South Africa deserves to know the truth.
Statement issued by Annette Steyn MP, DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries, September 16 2013
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