One of the projects visited by the committee is Amandla Entuthuko feedlot loosely translated this means the power of development feedlot.
Unfortunately what we witness on the ground in KwaZulu- Natal did not showcase the power of development. All they had to show for the R3million feedlot was a fenced field with absolutely nothing on it.
Clearly no feasibility study or impact assessment was done prior to approval of this project. In total an amount of R437 million was spent by the two departments of Agriculture and Rural Development and Land Reform on the 18 projects, ostensibly, for acquisition of land, machinery, infrastructure and production costs. However, not all of these funds found their way to the intended purpose. For example, beneficiaries from the Empangisweni project had no knowledge of an amount of three million for the vegetable scheme under irrigation.
The current state of most of the projects negates the astronomical amount supposedly spent on them. One has to wonder where the money went. Extension services by the Department of Agriculture were nonexistent all the beneficiaries confirm this.
One has to again wonder what the amount of R202 million spent under the extension recovery programme between 2015 and 2018 was used for. Unfortunately with the serious lack of monitoring and evaluation on funds disbursed one may never know ...
IsiXhosa:
Amandla entuthuko akabonakali kwaZulu. Iyaphi kanti le mali?
English:
The DA supports the report. Thank you. [Applause.]