CORRUPTION DESTROYS THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN
“This behaviour really gives no one confidence in this government.“
Sometimes one just wants to forget about politics and focus on the more positive things that are happening in the country. Despite everything that is going on, one must applaud the things our farmers are doing. Farmers are faced with many challenges, including record-high input costs that have been increasing sharply over the years due to various factors. The rise of input costs has been made worse by adverse weather conditions, particularly by the high rainfall we experienced in the past few months that affected farming activities, especially for grain producers. But somehow, farmers have kept going and they have remained productive, carrying on with their job of providing enough food for the country. Farmers and their workers need to be applauded and celebrated for their efforts.
No matter how hard one tries to ignore the bad news one can hardly ignore headlines screaming “Over R220 million meant for drought-stricken farmers in KwaZulu-Natal has gone missing”. This is the money given to KZN by the national government for drought relief when the province was declared a disaster area after a crippling drought in 2015. The National Disaster Management Centre has now allocated a further R120 million for drought relief.
Well, what do we do as a country when we find out that R220 million has gone missing? Do we try to find out where the money is and possibly recover it and send those responsible for the theft to jail? No, we just give them more money. That’s how we solve the problem! The less said about the turnaround time for such interventions, the better.
The news about the missing money comes in the middle of yet another crisis in the province – the recent floods that wreaked havoc. Currently, residents from seven of the province’s districts have been suffering water cuts and farmers are bearing the brunt of the crisis. The sugarcane industry was reported to be the most affected in agriculture with SA Canegrowers estimating R222 million in losses across the province. According to one commercial cane farmer, the damages included infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, washed away, making it impossible to access farms. Replanting will be difficult as roads and lands were hugely damaged. Loads of harvested cane are stuck and cannot be taken out due to road damage. This affects the big commercial farmers as well as the small farmers who also have their harvest ready for collection on farms that are inaccessible. The biggest fear is that the cane will get rotten and cause further loss.
While the farmers and many other people are battling this crisis, the premier of the province himself was involved in selfish acts where he had to benefit before everyone. Instead of putting his people first, he was seen using government resources to put himself and his family first. This behaviour really gives no one confidence in this government. We’ve also heard how many, including the same premier, are concerned that government officials might siphon off the money earmarked for the current disaster.
As I said earlier, farmers across the country have suffered due to the heavy rains during this past production season, and many are concerned about how the prolonged wet conditions will affect their yields and the quality of their crops. I was on Seitshiro Marumoloe’s farm the other day. This young farmer, featured on page 11, has done exceptionally well, producing over 300ha of small canning beans and over 100ha of maize.
As we walked through his fields and looked at his maize, it was obvious that the rains have caused some damage to his crop. His maize quality could be severely affected because he was caught by the late rains. This farmer and many others may need some level of support for government to be able to replant next season.
Earlier this year I spoke to farmers in the Free State who have lost a huge part of their crop due to waterlogging. They also need help. A short while back I spoke to a friend who has suffered severe losses on two of his farms in the Kimberly and Taung areas due to veld fires. He lost several cattle, some pregnant. He said he had to put some down as they had suffered burns beyond any hope of recovering. He has been trying to get the state to assist for many months now and what’s worse is that he must accept that he won’t be getting any help from the state.
I think it is heart-breaking how quickly the citizens of this country are accepting corruption as the norm. For us to move forward in building this country, something needs to be done to curb this corruption pandemic. More so, we need corrupt people to look at themselves. This is not only about stealing money from us the citizens, but also about destroying and robbing future generations of this country who will eventually have nothing left at all to inherit. – PETER MASHALA