Pretoria - Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson says her department will arrange a meeting with agriculture stakeholders in the Western Cape to discuss matters related to the sector.
This comes after the minister on Monday met Western Cape MEC for Agriculture, Gerrit van Rensburg, in Cape Town. The two discussed developments following Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe’s visit to that province earlier this year, in an effort to intervene to try to resolve issues besieging the sector.
Motlanthe had met farmworkers and owners in De Doorns, the epicentre of last year’s protracted industrial action by farmworkers.
Today, Joemat-Pettersson said the province’s programmes were not adequately dealing with the needs of farmworkers, and that she would write to Premier Helen Zille to address this.
“We have reached a point where we will have to intervene again in trying to resolve these issues,” said the minister, adding that not enough progress had been made since Motlanthe’s visit.
Joemat-Pettersson stressed that farmworker issues were not political, but were a priority that should be treated with the due impetus. - SAnews.gov.za
