SAFDA-confidentiality agreement with Agriculture Department shields it from oversight

8 July 2021

The DA can reveal that the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) has paid the South African Farmers Development Association (SAFDA) more than a quarter of a billion Rand over the span of 5 years.

This was revealed by the Minister of DALRRD, Thoko Didiza, in response to a DA Parliamentary question. (Also see here and here.)

It remains unclear why the Department would enter into a R246 664 290-agreement with SAFDA, especially since it is not clear whether oversight over the projects where SAFDA is involved, is taking place. Community members in Melmoth specifically is concerned about previously successful and profitable farms might be run into the ground.

The Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) requires that any government entity, including DALRRD, must adhere to the Act’s strict requirements for transparency and fairness when entering into contractual agreements. DALRRD has not provided any clarity as to whether, before entering into the caretaker agreement that it has with SAFDA, it invited other interested parties to come and bid.

The curious case between the caretaker agreement that subsists between the two parties is the lengths that they took to keep it hidden from public scrutiny. A confidentially clause in the agreement states that:

“Each party agrees not to use, disclose, reveal or allow third parties to use or disclose the others Confidential Information either during this Agreement or at any time thereafter…”

For an agreement where the DALRRD was to use public funds to enable SAFDA to implement its caretaker function, it is puzzling why the Department agreed to this non-accountability clause.

The DA has also made a Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (PAIA) application in order to ascertain exactly how SAFDA has spent these public funds. We will be going over this information with a fine-tooth comb – every single cent paid over to SAFDA must be accounted for, and should there be any red flags, the DA will call for an in-depth investigation into what certainly looks like malfeasance.

It would be utterly unreasonable for both DALRRD and SAFDA to expect no oversight to happen regarding public funds, and unless they have something to hide, the DA would expect them to welcome the chance to show how they have benefitted the communities they’re meant to be helping.

Issued by Annette Steyn, DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, 8 July 2021