Programme Director;
MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development;
Members of the Diplomatic Community;
Senior Government Officials;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Good Evening!
Annually on the 25 May, our continent commemorates Africa Day, the day in 1963 during which the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was formed. It is a day that emphasisesthe importance of the unity of Africans and it was initially commemorated as Africa Freedom Day or Africa Liberation Day.
Recognising the persistence of widespread hunger on the continent, African leaders decided to mark this year as the Year of Nutrition. In this regard, the 2022 Africa Day themewas crafted as: “Strengthening Resilience in Nutrition and Food Security on the African Continent.”
In line with the theme, our venue here at Cedara Agricultural College is opportune and appropriate. One has been advised that in the audience we have a number of young people from our province, including youth in agriculture. We are also truly honoured and happy to be commemorating such a day with our brothers and sisters from a number of sister countries on the African continent.
To all of you, from Cape to Cairo, from Morocco to Madagascar, Welcome! Karibu! Bem-vindo! Bienvenu! Siyanamukela!
The unity of African people and those in the diaspora must be pursued relentlessly, with vigour and enthusiasm each day of the year, not just Africa Day.
This is a day that must remind South Africans, the people of KwaZulu-Natal, and nationals from other parts of our continent that our future and destiny is in Africa.
It must remind us that African history does not begin with slavery. During Africa Day and Africa Month, we have a perfect opportunity to remind our children and the world that Africa is the cradle of civilisation and the birthplace of all humanity.
It is a time to claim fully the Nile River civilization, the pyramids in Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan. When we say that our history did not begin with the Trans-Atlantic slave trade whose outcome gave us modern-day racism, we must be able to point to the Timbaktu city of gold in Mali, to Great Zimbabwe, to Mapungubwe.
Africa month and Africa Day must serve to remind us that between 1884 and 1885, Europeans sat in Berlin, Germany, and partitioned Africa for the powers of the West. We should recognise that in a stroke of a pen, they carved portions of our beautiful continent and created borders in a scramble for our resources. In doing so, we may be able to remember that there is more that unites us than what divides us as Africans and that we dare not give up on the vision of a united Africa thatearlier pan-Africanists laid their lives for.
Addressing the inaugural meeting of the OAU, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the President of Ghana asserted that, “we must unite or sink”, “unite or perish”. He said: “So many blessings must flow from our unity; so many disasters must follow from our continued disunity, that our failure to unite today will not be attributed by posterity only to faulty reason and lack of courage, but our capitulation before the forces of imperialism.”
Similar sentiments have been echoed over many decades by the founding fathers and founding mothers of independent Africa. Speaking in Accra, Ghana in March 1997, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere stressed this point when he said: “Unity will not make us rich, but it can make it difficult for Africa and the African peoples to be disregarded and humiliated”.
We remember too President Nelson Mandela’s iconic speech to the OAU meeting in Tunis, Libya, on the 13th of June 1994. Addressing the Heads of Government and State, Madiba said: “Africa shed her blood and surrendered the lives of her children so that all her children could be free. She gave of her limited wealth and resources so that all of Africa should be liberated. She opened heart of hospitality and her head so full of wise counsel, so that we should emerge victorious.”
As the Province of KwaZulu-Natal, we take immense pride that it was twenty years ago in Durban that African Heads of State and Government launched the African Union, replacing the Organisation of African Unity. It was at this time that African leaders saw the need that this continental body should put emphasis on economic integration as the route to political unity and collective development.
Delivering the keynote address, President Thabo Mbekiexpressed his personal joy that the launch of the African Union took place in a land of heroes like King Shaka, King Cetshwayo, Inkosi Bhambatha. He went on to evoke the memory of notable freedom fighters like Dr JL Dube, Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Inkosi Albert Luthuli, and Mahatma Ghandi.
Regarding our beloved country, President Mbeki said: “This is a country in which Africa first fashioned the kind of fighting force that was pan-African from the beginning and which, with its fellow combatants throughout our continent, led our peoples to their liberation.
This is a country that gave birth to the melodic African prayer and anthem -Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika! God bless Africa! Raise high her glory! Hear our prayers and confer on us your blessings!
But this is also a country that owes its birth as a non-racial democracy to the great sacrifices that the peoples of Africa made to ensure that our continent is free of the blight of colonialism, white minority rule and apartheid.”
Finally, President Mbeki proclaimed that it was time to end Africa’s marginalisation and that, “the time has come that Africa must take her rightful place in global affairs.”
As KwaZulu-Natal, we also celebrate that a gracious and talented daughter of KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Nkosazane Dlamini-Zuma, became the first woman to chair the AU . It was under her sterling leadership that Africa produced the blueprint for our future in Agenda 2063 which clearly spells out the Africa of our dreams or the Africa we want.
Among others, Agenda 2063 seeks to achieve
A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development
An integrated continent, politically united and based on the ideals of Pan-Africanism and the vision of Africa’s Renaissance
An Africa of good governance, democracy, respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law
An Africa whose development is people-driven, relying on the potential of African people, especially its women and youth, and caring for children
Addressing the Joint Sitting of Parliament in September 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa and the Chairperson of the African Union at the time reminded us that:
“Our fortunes are linked to those of our fellow African nations. This country was built on the labour of not just South Africans, but migrants from India, from China, and from the entire Southern African region.” And the President issued an important caution, insisting that: “Rather than retreating into a laager, we must embrace African integration and the benefits it will bring to our economy and those of our neighbours.”
Africa Day is a reminder of the need to decolonise trade, international relations and cultural trademarks and unleash the power to shine greater as the new frontier for growth for the whole world.
One of the significant achievements of the African Union was the adoption of the Decision by the African Union in January 2012 to establish a free Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to boost intra-Africa trade. This would be the world’s largest free trade area with a potential to boost intra-African trade by 52.3%.
Celebrating Africa Day at a practical level gives more meaning to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement that consolidates the continent as one of the largest free trade area in the world measured by the number of countries participating.
The World Bank tells us that the AfCFTA comprises of a market of more than 1.3 billion people across 55 countries with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) valued at US$3.4 trillion. The AfCFTA has the potential to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty. Africa is seen to be in a pole position of taking advantage of the AfCFTA in regards to establishing $450 billion in income gains where $292 billion would come from stronger trade facilitation.
Many parts of Africa continue to face extreme poverty and hunger. We should make it our generational mission to make sure that poverty is eradicated. Research shows that with the successful implementation of AfCFTA, we should be able to see the following:
o West Africa: biggest decline in the number of people living in extreme poverty, a decline of 12 million (more than a third of the total for all of Africa).
o Central Africa: poverty decline of 9.3 million.
o Eastern Africa: poverty decline of 4.8 million.
o Southern Africa: poverty decline of 3.9 million.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The whole perceives Africa as the new growth frontier with a large youthful, dynamic population. We are the fastest urbanising continent. The AU reveals that between 1994 and 2019, the under-5 mortality has been reduced by more than 50 percent. However, malnutrition remains high in Africa and undernutrition is said to be an underlying cause of almost half of child deaths.
Evidence shows that COVID-19 has undermined a number of African economies and revealed the weakness of food and health systems. The pandemic has undermined the gains that Africa has been making in reducing malnutrition. The AU has thus called on all of us pay attention to malnutrition and food insecurity by implementing interventions that would target the most vulnerable. As we implement our economic recovery plans, there is also a need of ensuring that nutrition is embedded within the Covid-19 Response and Recovery plans.
Compatriots, I wish to draw you to the 2021 Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition report produced by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. The report shows that:
▪Progress towards achieving the global nutrition targets by 2030 remains unacceptably slow.
▪Africa is not on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 targets to end hunger and ensure access by all people to safe, nutritious and sufficient food, and to end malnutrition.
▪About 281.6 million people in Africa faced hunger in 2020, which is 46.3 million more than in 2019, an increase of 89.1 million over 2014.
▪About 44.4 percent of undernourished people on the continent live in Eastern Africa, 26.7 percent in Western Africa, 20.3 percent in Central Africa, 6.2 percent for Northern Africa, and 2.4 percent for Southern Africa.
▪In addition to the 346.4 million Africans suffering from severe food insecurity, 452 million suffer from moderate food insecurity.
▪Real gross domestic product in Africa fell by 2.1 percent in 2020, primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
▪Food insecurity is often exacerbated by poverty, inequality, and sometimes inappropriate policies.
▪Conflict, climate change, and economic slowdowns and downturns are the key drivers of food insecurity in Africa.
▪The prevalence of stunting in children under five years of age has fallen gradually, but at 30.7 percent remains high, and the number of stunted children continues to rise.
▪The prevalence of overweight in children under five years of age in Africa is 5.3 percent, below the global average. However, in Northern and Southern Africa the prevalence is much higher at 13 and 12.1 percent, respectively. Despite progress over the 2000 to 2015 period, the 2015 to 2020 period has seen a rise in the prevalence of overweight in all subregions
▪About 122.7 million women of reproductive age are affected by anaemia. The prevalence has fallen over the last 10 years, but progress is much too slow to achieve the global nutrition targets.
▪Globally, 5.7 percent (38.9 million) of children under five years of age were overweight in 2018. Of these, 10.6 million children are in Africa, and the continental prevalence, at 5.3 percent, is slightly below the global one. The prevalence in Southern Africa is much higher than the global average, driven by the high prevalence in South Africa (12.9 percent).
▪The prevalence of adult obesity is 12.8 percent in Africa, very similar to the global rate.
▪The prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding in Africa is 43.6 percent, very similar to the global average. Eastern Africa has achieved considerable progress with a prevalence of 60.7 percent in 2019.
▪A common vision, strong political leadership and effective cross-sectoral collaboration, which includes the private sector, are essential to agree on trade-offs and to identify and implement sustainable solutions that transform agrifood systems so they can deliver healthy, affordable diets.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Last week, the Mercury Newspaper ran with the headline: “Food Insecurity Warning for KZN and South Africa. ” The author of the piece warned that if nothing is done to attend to food insecurity that our province could face food riots.
The piece came to the conclusion informed by research and data contained in the May 2022 Household Affordability Index released by the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity organisation. The report released on 31 May reveals that:
✓Statistics South Africa’s latest Consumer Price Index for April 2022 shows that Headline inflation was 5,9%. CPI Food inflation was 6,3%.
✓In May 2022: The average cost of the Household Food Basket increased by R66,96 (1,5%), from R4 542,93 in April 2022 to R4 609,89 in May 2022 R4 609,89.
✓Year-on-year: The average cost of the Household Food Basket increased by R472,78 (11,4%), from R4 137,11 in May 2021 to R4 609,89 in May 2022.
✓The Joburg basket increased by R63,43 (1,4%), and R440,88 (10,5%) year-on-year, to R4 626,51 in May 2022The Maritzburg basket increased by R128,13 (3%) and R509,10 (12,9%) year-on-year, to R4 463,96 in May 2022.
✓The Durban food basket increased by R126,54 (2,8%) and R563,53 (13,6%) year-on-year, to R4 709,59 in May 2022.
✓The significant increases (5% and above) are: cooking oil (by an average of R24,67 (14%) on a 5L bottle, with average price in May R201,90), potatoes, onion, chicken livers, inyama yangaphakathi (beef offal), carrots and spinach. Increases, also including maize meal, cake flour, frozen chicken portions, stock cubes, wors, tomatoes, cabbage, white bread.
✓Much higher commodity prices, production and logistical costs will continue to drive prices upwards and are likely to continue rising for the rest of 2022.
✓Long supply lines make us vulnerable to food insecurity at both global and local levels. Covid 19 and now the Russia/Ukraine conflict (pandemics and geopolitical tensions – both potential features of our future), including local climatic disasters (recent flooding in KZN) and social unrest (July 2021 and general daily protests) which disrupt logistics and production, suggest that we need to seriously re-think our levels of exposure to global commodity price movements and speculation, and/in the long food supply chains, which impact negatively on household food security.
✓Heavy rains and flooding impact on agricultural production and produce. The immediate impact however is on transporting goods on roads. The flooding has caused severe infrastructural damage to a sizeable portion of KwaZulu-Natal’s transportation systems, as well as worsening the already poor road system in parts of the rural agricultural province.
✓The annual National Minimum Wage increment of 2022 will not be enough to cover the surge in food prices, and the upcoming transport fare increases and electricity tariff increases. Workers again, in 2022, will be poorer than they were last year.
✓In May 2022, the average cost to feed a child a basic nutritious diet was R803,46. Year-on-year, the cost to feed a child a basic nutritious diet has increased by R59,56 or 8%
✓In May 2022, the Child Support Grant of R480 is 23% below the Food Poverty Line of R624, and 40% below the average cost to feed a child a basic nutritious diet of R803,46.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Agriculture in KwaZulu-Natal is a key economic pillar. The provincial government supports a number of programmes that encourage households to till the land, farm, and to improve food security. We also support the mechanisation of agriculture and black small-scale farmers to ensure that previously disadvantaged groups participate in the sector.
We call on the young people of KwaZulu-Natal to study agriculture, love the land again, and make it productive to feed our province. It is the youth of KwaZulu-Natal in our graduate programmes and interventions like “Inkunzi Isematholeni” that must ensure that we grow a new crop of enthusiastic young farmers given that many of our farmers are ageing and not growing young.
Delivering her Budget Vote Speech recently, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ms Thoko Didiza indicated that agriculture has shown resilience over the past two years, growing by 13.4% year-on-year in 2020 and 8.3% in 2021. The sector contributed 868 000 jobs in the fourth quarter of 2021, reflecting stability over the past few years. We also know how during COVID-19 agriculture which we support through our programme of RASET thrived because we could not import food during the global lockdown.
Compatriots, we need to exploit the full potential of agriculture to grow employment and fight hunger in KwaZulu-Natal. StatsSA declared in its most recent report that young people in our country continue to bear the brunt of unemployment with a rate higher than the national average.
In the Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the first quarter of 2022, the unemployment rate is reported overall as 34.5%, but was 63,9% for those aged 15-24 and 42,1% for those aged 25-34 years. The latest figures indicate that out of the over 10 million young people aged 15-24 years only 2,5 million were in the labour force, either employed or unemployed.
A worrying trend is the increase in those young people who were described as youth not in employment, education or training (NEET). The expanded unemployment rate increased in KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo (up by 4,0 percentage points each), followed by Eastern Cape (up by 3,0 percentage points), Northern Cape (up by 2,2 percentage points) and North West (up by 2,0 percentage points).
As we commence with the celebration of the Youth Month of June, these figures underscore the point that participation in employment, education or training is important if youth is to find employment and achieve self-sufficiency.
According to the World Bank healthy, sustainable and inclusive food systems are critical to achieving the world’s development goals with agricultural development as one of the most powerful tools to end extreme poverty, boost shared prosperity and feed a projected 9.7 billion people by 2050. The World Banks notes that: “Growth in the agriculture sector is two to four times more effective in raising incomes among the poorest compared to other sectors. Agriculture is also crucial to economic growth: in 2018, it accounted for 4% of global gross domestic product (GDP) and in some least developing countries, it can account for more than 25% of GDP”.
Crucially, the World Bank notes further that agriculture-driven growth, poverty reduction, and food security are at risk from the multiple shocks of “COVID-19 related disruptions, to extreme weather, pests and conflicts.
According to the United Nations (UN) document titled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, one of the goals is to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”. The UN insists that the world needs to “double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers, in particular women, indigenous peoples, family farmers, pastoralists and fishers, including through secure and equal access to land, other productive resources and inputs, knowledge, financial services, markets and opportunities for value addition and non-farm employment”.
Part of our programme to revive agriculture and general economic growth and employment is to undo creeping corporate corruption, address the failure of companies to invest in skills-development, lack of sustainable energy generation and the instability created by criminal activities of some business forums. Our economic recovery programme seeks to address and introduce economic reforms anchored on radical economic transformation and the greater participation in the mainstream economy of the majority including in the agriculture sector.
Our Agrarian Reform Programme should increase economic opportunities for Historically Disadvantaged Individuals and secure markets for small scale businesses that are assisted with market access and agro-logistics support.
The programme of Radical Socio-Economic Transformationis driven by government’s decision which directs that schools, hospitals and entities be made accessible to SMMEsespecially for rural based business enterprises. This is to facilitate an increase in the number of Historically Disadvantaged Individuals participating in the whole food value chain (production, processing and distribution). Through partnerships, numerous private markets have been secured through the RASET programme and the sharing of skills and resources with the aid of partners the Dr John Langalibalele Dube Institute, UKZN, and the Land Bank.
Ladies and Gentlemen, as we stated during the State of the Province Address, the establishment of the Agri-Hubs is one of the most important economic drivers in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal. The agri-hub concept is a collaboration between the state and the private sector where government provides an investor-friendly environment with all the bulk infrastructure and economic incentives, while the private sector invests in the business side. We have delineated the province into focus commodities with the Red Meat Hub going to be located in Zululand District Municipality; TheWool, Skin and Hides Treatment Facility in uThukela District Municipality; White Meat Hub in the border of both the eThekwini Municipality and UMgungundlovu districts; TheDairy Hub in Harry Gwala District Municipality; and theFresh Produce Hub in King Cetshwayo Municipality District;The Grain Hub in Amajuba District.
The agri-hubs programme has provisionally been identified as a national priority programme by the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission and is also to befunded as such. Resource mobilisation for the funding of the projects has commenced and negotiations are ongoing with the private sector investors from here and abroad.
We must continue with interventions to commercialise goat farming in KwaZulu-Natal and expanding the Red Meatcommodity value chain. Provincial government has invested on the following commodities Beef Projects 17 projects, 16 Piggery Projects, 11 Poultry Projects; 02 Goat Projects. The bulk of this investment goes towards the provision of animal feed, fencing material, breeding stock, extension and advisory services and other forms of support.
In the 2022/23 financial year, the department has set aside abudget of more than R103-million to implement the Livestock Value Chain projects. Our Multi-Planting Season Programme, which we launched at Uthukela District in 2021, continues to be the mainstay amongst our programmes to support food production in KwaZulu-Natal. In the 2022/23 financial year, the department is planning to support 10 136 producers in the grain commodity value chain. Furthermore, the department is planning to support farmers to cultivate 28 320 hectares in the 2022/23 financial year.
One of the highlights is that in the 2022/23 financial year, the department is planning to spend a total budget of R26 108 096 towards supporting 230 Vulnerable Group projects constituting of 113 Women owned projects, 83 Youth owned projects and 34 Person with Disability owned projects. We congratulate the 340 agricultural graduates placed on farms and agricultural enterprises under the agricultural graduate development programme. The Department is placing 340 new graduates on enterprises during 2022/23 to ensure our young agricultural enthusiasts continue to grow as entrepreneurs in the sector.
Last year the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development undertook to bring into operation the Makhathini Nursery and build new Mega Nurseries at Dundee and here at Cedara Research Stations as government seed production initiative. During this past season, the Makhathini nursery produced 70 000 seedlings for the farmers around uMkhanyakude district. A total of 30 graduates were recruited to support seedling production. The structure designs for nurseries at Dundee and Cedara have been completed and the construction will be completed in the 2022/2023 financial year. Makhathini Nursery will continue to support other districts with seedling.
Under the agronomic seed programme, the Department managed to harvest 3.63 tons of maize seeds and distributed to farmers who planted 145 hectares. The farmers will harvest an estimated 580 tons of maize. Bean seed harvested is 7.0 tons and distributed to the farmers who planted 93 hectares of beans. The farmers will harvest an estimated 139.5 tons of beans.
You would be pleased to know that 5ha hectares of maize and 35 hectares of beans have been planted for seed multiplication. On maize, 30 tons of maize seeds will be harvested and on beans 87, 5 tons of bean seeds will be harvested. The total hectares for farmers that will be supported with the seed multiplied in the current plant season are: 1500 hectares of maize and 3600 hectares for beans. These hectares are for farmers across the province.
Ladies and Gentlemen, an Ethiopian proverb reminds us that “where a woman rules, streams run uphill”. As part of achieving of the journey to achieve Generation Equality by 2030, we seek to bring women at the centre of the economy, including agriculture and agro-processing. This is part of our efforts to liberate women from sexism, patriarchy and gender-based violence.
We recall, the words of Mozambique President, Samora Machel who said: “the emancipation of women is not an act of charity, the result of a humanitarian or compassionate attitude. The liberation of women is a fundamental necessity for the revolution, a guarantee of its continuity and a precondition for its victory.”
In our province, we are using public procurement to advance women economic empowerment and gender parity.
We have set-asides of 58 commodities that government departments are mandated procure strictly from cooperatives and SMMEs, especially women-owned enterprises.
We have a target of 30% set asides for women, and youth-owned SMMEs. To support local procurement, our target is 35%youth; 30% women, 5% people with disabilities– 60% allocated to Africans.
We have the ambitious target that by 2024, 50 % of government spending should be on women-owned women-led businesses.
Let us also pay attention to our diet, avoid fast foods, exercise, prevent obesity and fight lifestyle diseases.
Compatriots,
History reminds us that Africa was generally a capricious and harsh environment. It was such an environment that produced great black farmers with sharp, in-depth knowledge of the land, the seasons, and the weather. Long before the Dutch arrived at the Cape in 1652, Africans knew their environment and were successful farmers. The different relationships over the years between black farmers and white farmers including sharecropping and labour tenancy show that white people actually acquired much of the knowledge of farming and our environment from black farmers.
As we think about farming, we also pay tribute to the Indian community that was brought by the British on our shores as indentured labourers to work on the sugar cane plantations. Africans had been resisting to be part of the wage economy as they still had means of living and access to land and livestockunder our Kings.
We all know how the shortage of labour at the mines with the discovery of diamonds in Kimberly and gold in the reef at the turn of the 20th century led to the passing of the Natives Land Act of 1913. The Act was meant to deprive Africans of their freedom, dispossess them of their land, and force them into the wage economy to support the mining and the new industries. Over many decades, many of our people began depending on the wage economy as migrant labourers and lost their agricultural skills. Increasingly, agriculture was also getting mechanised to support a growing South African population.
The ANC-led government will continue to support land reform programmes to give arable and agricultural land for farming to our people. We remain invested in improving the skills of black farmers through agricultural colleges like this one. We will continue to support technological innovation to support agriculture. We must also work together in protecting our environment and making KwaZulu-Natal more climate-resilient by among others, adopting better climate-predicting technology and reducing the carbon footprint through the use of cleaner sources of energy.
We thank you all for your attendance today and we hope you will play your part in producing food not only for food security, but also for the export market taking advantage of international markets and intra-Africa trade.
Side by side, let us strengthen resilience in nutrition and food security in our province and on the African Continent:
Together Growing KwaZulu-Natal and contributing to a better Africa and a Better World!
I thank you!