The South African agriculture sector has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare the industry as an essential service.
This statement was made by Agri SA as it pleaded with Ramaphosa to declare agriculture an essential service amid the country’s worsening power crisis implemented by Eskom.
Local farmers, who need the power to irrigate their crops, are battling to keep up and meat and dairy farmers have also been hit hard.
This sentiment was made as Ramaphosa is set to deliver his state of the nation address (Sona) – Agri SA said there would be dire consequences should the electricity cuts continue unabated.
EWN has it that these challenges included businesses collapsing, as well as threats to the country’s food security.
Agri SA executive director Christo van der Rheede said the sector had fruitful discussions with the department of agriculture, but added that the government was slow to implement interventions.
“We cannot continue along this path. Too many promises were made but very few of those promises materialised,” he said.
“And obviously [they should] look at other tax measures just to prevent the sector from going bankrupt.”
Van der Rheede also urged the government to consider increasing the diesel rebate, which gave farmers some relief.
As the president is expected to deliver his address on Thursday evening, some of the topics of interest are energy insecurity and the ailing economy which are seen to be top of the agenda.
