The FF Plus has sent an official letter to the Free State Premier, Sisi Ntombela, demanding that the areas where extensive damage has been caused by the recent extraordinary rainfall must be declared disaster areas.
All the affected farmers in these areas must be provided with the support they need.
The Free State government has a duty to take action in times of extraordinary circumstances, like the past few weeks’ heavy rainfall, which resulted in serious agricultural losses.
The province cannot afford not to assist its farmers. The agricultural sector’s contribution to the province and the country on the whole is too valuable and the Free State government simply must take action.
If the Premier really is serious about ensuring food security in the Free State, she will do everything in her power to assist the province’s agricultural sector and to implement the relevant contingency plans.
All the farmers in the affected areas must be provided with disaster aid and the state of disaster must not exclude commercial farmers from receiving aid, as it has happened in the past.
Declaring a state of disaster in the affected areas will be the first step in providing the necessary aid to farmers who suffered damage and losses.
Once these disaster areas have been declared, the FF Plus will also request the relevant municipalities to suspend the land taxes of the affected farmers for one year in terms of the Municipal Property Rates Act.
Read the original article in Afrikaans by Armand Cloete on FF Plus
