Minister Didiza still refuses to provide list of Covid-19 beneficiaries

22 September 2020

The Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Thoko Didiza, is still refusing to account to Parliament on which farmers received aid from the Covid-19 fund.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that this information, which we requested almost four months ago, is of the utmost importance. With this information, the DA would be able to conduct valuable oversight on whether the money reached those it intended to benefit.

The DA did not ask for this information on a whim. We asked it in response to an ever-increasing amount of complaints from farmers about the vouchers the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) issued.

There have been numerous complaints of farmers not able to redeem vouchers because government is not settling the bills. There are complaints that the vouchers issued can only be redeemed at certain companies – this often means that farmers don’t receive their money’s worth due to inflated prices or that these companies don’t sell what the farmers need. And then there are of course those people that are trying to sell their vouchers as they are not farmers and should not have received vouchers in the first place.

We ask the Minister once again to answer our original question posted to her on 29 May:

(3) whether she will furnish Mrs A Steyn with a list of all successful applications of farmers; if not, why not, if so, on what date;

(4) what (a) amount did each farmer receive in each district, (b) is the name of each farmer who received the Covid-19 financial support and (c) are the contact details of each farmer?

The Minister must stop ducking and diving and follow Parliamentary process. If she fails to provide the information, as she promised to do during an oral Parliamentary question session on 18 August 2020, the DA will write to the Leader of Government Business in Parliament, Deputy-president David Mabuza, to intervene.

It is the DA’s job to provide oversight. The Minister knows this. Her refusal to answer what should have been an easy question does not bode well, and inevitably raises questions of Covid corruption at DALRRD.

Issued by Annette Steyn, DA Shadow Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, 22 September 2020