ANC and EFF MP’s block parliamentary meeting to save 350 000 sugar cane jobs

26 February 2019

Today, ANC MP’s in the Portfolio Committee on Trade & Industry voted down a request by the Democratic Alliance made on 11 February 2019 to hold an urgent joint portfolio committee meeting with Agriculture and Rural Development to urgently find solutions for the impending jobs blood bath in the sugar cane industry. The EFF chose to abstain from the vote effectively handing the ANC a victory.

What these MP’s have proven today is that they simply have no interest in the plight of 350 000 people from small scale farms, to development farmers and workers.

In a callous move, these MP’s believe that this crisis can simply wait until after the elections on the 8th of May 2019.

Job-losses of this kind will have a devastating impact on the forever growing unemployment figures. That is why I requested the Speaker of the National Assembly in a letter yesterday to grant an urgent request to table my debate of national importance on how we can save the sector and 350 000 jobs.

It is clear that Parliament is the last line of defence for the industry and workers in the face of the ANC and EFF unwilling to do what they were elected to do in 2014.

The DA will continue to follow up with the Speaker so that the motion can be scheduled without delay. Every day that goes by is another day that people will continue to lose their jobs.

Issued by Dean Macpherson, DA Shadow Minister for Trade & Industry, 26 February 2019