Chair, I was just warming up and now my time is gone. [Laughter.] Thank you very much, Chair. [Applause.]
The MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES: Chairperson, hon members of Cabinet, and I note a number of Cabinet colleagues and members of the House, I wish to congratulate all those members, particularly those who made their maiden speeches, on making a sizable contribution to the debate on agriculture today. I have noted the suggestions that many of you have made.
I have also noticed the concerns that you have raised. We will look into these and revert to Parliament on some of them in due course. We will collect all your speeches. Please make copies of all your speeches available to us before we get the official versions from Hansard. For that purpose, we will translate most of the Afrikaans speeches into English, as many of our officials did not have translation services available to them.
There are a number of matters that I would like to respond to immediately. For the others, I will have one-on-ones with the members and respond to them in discussions with them. The first is the Land Bank. We are in the process of restructuring and recapitalising the Land Bank. The Land Bank cannot be a commercial bank. In a developmental state, the Land Bank has to a developmental bank that cannot charge lending rates which are higher than commercial banks. [Applause.]
Currently, the Land Bank lends at a rate of prime plus five percent, which is a 19% return on investment, and this is too high for emerging farmers. They would have to plant diamonds if they were to repay their loans to the Land Bank.
The two Ministers, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform met with the Land Bank last Friday to look at how we can restructure the Land Bank and how we can renew their policies. So, before we take them back, we must first clean house. We don't want them in agriculture in their current state. So, let the Minister of Finance first clean out the Land Bank in terms of adding more money and then return it to us. [Applause.]
The second point is the economic viability that was spoken about by members Carter and Bosman. Hon member Bosman, it was a sad loss for the commercial agricultural sector when you left to go into politics. I think you were better serving agriculture as a commercial farmer. [Laughter.] [Applause.] But, anyway, now that you are sitting in the House, I have to respond to you as a politician and no longer as a commercial agriculture contributor, which is much better.
Economic viability is the mantra we are calling for. We can no longer settle farmers and two or three months later discover that those farms are dysfunctional or that those farms have run to wrack and ruin.
So, postsettlement support is what we are going to build on. We are confronted by an approach which forces us to be different towards commercial agriculture. Our confrontational approach towards the commercial agricultural sector already started changing from day one in terms of seeking to have a more co-operative approach with commercial agriculture.
In this regard, we have already met with Agri SA, and we will continue having a road show, a roundtrip programme, with members - you are welcome to join us on the road show - meeting emerging farmers and particularly meeting chiefs, as well as traditional leaders, in terms of what their experiences are and what their investment could be in agriculture.
The agriculture sector plan exists. We don't need a new plan. There is already a plan. But what we need to do is to look at the comprehensive rural development programme, which the ruling party developed in the Polokwane resolutions, as well as look at its manifesto resolutions. We don't need to reinvent a plan. We already have a plan. [Applause.]
Farmers who are moving to the Democratic Republic of the Congo will do so with the kind of knowledge base which is needed to grow agriculture in Africa and not only grow agriculture in South Africa. South Africa's farmers must feed South Africa's people, but Africa's farmers must also feed Africa's people.
The only caution that we gave our commercial agricultural farming sector, and we engaged with Agri SA on this, is that when they go, we cannot give them guarantees; that if the DRC decides to take back the land, that they don't come crying back to us to say that the land was taken away from them, as happened in Zimbabwe. So, when they go, they mustn't expect us to guarantee them their land or to act as security. We will not guarantee them any security. They are going as any private-sector business to invest in another country. If they lose their investments, they mustn't be crybabies and come back to us. [Applause.]
The Food for All campaign is a campaign we have structured with our comprehensive rural development programme, in line with our Limpopo resolutions, to say that there must food for all. High food prices, as well as the threatening of food security for the poorest of the poor, are going to be our challenges in the global economic meltdown.
On the point of agricultural colleges, as part of the Limpopo resolutions and the mandate we received, we have to work hard to make sure that those colleges are viable.
We spoke about the monopoly certain companies have over agricultural production. There are five companies which basically have a monopoly over fertilisers in this country. Those five companies control the prices and where we have to buy, and breaking those monopolies is going to be strategic for us. I am talking about millions of South Africans who have lived in continued poverty, have suffered from ongoing hunger and disease, and have remained unemployed. We cannot have the divide between those who are well off and those who are poor and marginalised continuing in the sector.
So, I'm not planning to be a rain queen. I am planning to address the gap of poverty and the gap of the poor and the marginalised. [Applause.] My mandate is not to strengthen one sector to the disadvantage of the poorest of the poor. [Interjections.] I would have failed in my mandate if I did not achieve the integration of farming communities in South Africa where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
It is in this regard that we must work together to do more. We will listen to all stakeholders. We will listen to those who have competence and skills. We do not have the luxury and the time to reinvent the wheel. There are historically advantaged commercial farmers who have the knowledge and who have the know-how, and there is goodwill amongst white commercial farmers. There exists goodwill. They want to help.
It is tapping into that goodwill that is important and not to always blame and label white commercial farmers as the enemy. They are patriotic. [Applause.] There are patriotic white South Africans who want to help this country, and we will tap into the patriotic white South Africans who believe that their collective future lies in this government and in this country.
We have a new mandate. Many white South Africans believe in the government of the ANC, so don't be challenged by that. We have chosen a path which is not an easy path. The path of bringing stakeholders together in agriculture is not going to be an easy task.
Hierdie pad is 'n verkose pad. Ons het dit gekies. Dit is 'n weldeurdagte pad, omdat ons nou hande moet vat. [This is a chosen path. We have chosen it. As this is a well thought-out path, we have to take one another's hands.]
We have no choice. We don't have all the knowledge. My officials do not have all the experience and all the capacity. We do not have extension officers with all the knowledge and all the capacity, but we cannot have mentor farmers who are condescending, patronising, racist in their nature. We are going to need mentors who participate in shareholding agreements in joint ventures so that they share the risk of failure. If a farm collapses, it is going to be the responsibility of both white and black farmers to address the failure.
Die bre uitleg wat ons vandag aan u voorhou, agb lede, is ons manier van bevestig dat elke reis begin met die eerste tree. [The broad framework that we present to you today, hon members, is our way of confirming that every journey starts with one step.]
We are starting with new steps. We apologise if we have made mistakes in the past. Allow me to pay tribute to those who have come before me, like the hon Dirk du Toit, whose tireless efforts in meaningful rural change should be documented. His legacy is what should also be remembered. Hon member, it is not only for you to recognise the legacy of your own party; recognise the legacy of all those in the Chambers who have left footprints for all of us. [Applause.]
It is with sadness that I join my deputy in announcing the untimely passing away last night of our Deputy Director-General: Corporate and Financial Services, Mr Tommy Marais. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and colleagues. This is one Afrikaner who also stood for transformation in our department. I will really miss him.
I look forward to working with the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. I look forward to working with our chairpersons and our members of various parliamentary committees. I am also looking forward to working with stakeholders in agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
I would like to thank the director-general and the entire staff of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the relinquishing departments' directors-general, as well as the director-general who is now with the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and no longer with Agriculture.
I want to thank the provincial departments of agriculture and the state- owned entities for participating in the work of the department, the chairperson of Agri SA, Mr Mller, for his contribution and for offering advice, even though I don't always agree with him. He does allow me to break my neck. He also allows me to make mistakes.
I hope, hon members in this House, that you will mentor us, that you will monitor us, that you will evaluate us, and that the impact of our programmes will impact your constituencies. If we fail to impact on your constituencies, your oversight will justify our pulling up our bootstraps right up to our necks. Your oversight will justify and vindicate the confidence of our people in this government. We will not be satisfied with anything less. We want to reinforce the message we worked hard for when the people of South Africa crafted the manifesto. The manifesto was not crafted by the ANC Luthuli House.
Our exciting programmes announced before the elections now need implementation. These programmes need to bring us together so that we can do more.
Deur saam te werk, kan ons baie meer vermag. Ons het 'n verantwoordelikheid teenoor die armstes van die armes in hierdie land. [By working together, we can achieve more. We have a responsibility towards the poorest of the poor of this country.]
With our new mandate, we will make a significant contribution to eradicate poverty, to build livelihoods, to build the rural poor and to be a critical and viable instrument and a critical catalyst for rural economic empowerment, black economic empowerment in particular.
I want to thank the former Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs for her hands-on approach as she hands over the baton to the Deputy Minister and me. The chairperson of the portfolio parliamentary committee ...