A debate has started in the media about the signed Agricultural and Agro-processing Masterplan (AAMP) and with it various misperceptions has come to the fore.
Firstly, the claim of the Minister of Agriculture Thoko Didiza that TLU SA had a fair chance to participate and make its mark on the plan, is not the whole truth.
“TLU SA did provide input after it became clear that it is necessary to address aspects such as everything that falls under transformation to gain clarity. However, the plan was signed without any of our input ever being handled,” said Mr Bennie van Zyl, TLU SA General Manager.
“It must be made clear from the outset that certain expert research and points are included in the signed plan with which TLU SA is very comfortable. The comments given by role players who did sign the plan only focus on those aspects and if it was all that was included in the plan, TLU SA would most likely not have had a problem either. The harsh reality, however, is that the whole plan has been signed off and the problem lies precisely in those parts that are not being spoken about or where concepts are still being used that have caused us failures to date.”
Those who signed the plan now refer to attempts to politicise the agricultural plan and say that the AAMP is inclusive, and politics did not play a role in its compilation.
“What is transformation other than ideology and politicisation?”
TLU SA, Saai, LWO, Neasa and WRSA would like to invite input to establish an economically oriented plan and then implement it.
“All over the country, it is experienced that all residents are tired of the results of the ANC’s ideological principles, which since 1994 have only helped to make things worse. We cannot understand that here where we had an opportunity to embody economic principles; people are still silently watching how, despite good points in the AAMP, the ideological aspects that are also contained in it have been bowed down to again.”
Read the original article in Afrikaans on TLU SA
