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November 2017
What are we to do?
t
he early rains in the north makes one feel somewhat guilty
when you think of the Western Cape where people are
wondering daily how their dams are going to get full and
how they are going to survive the season without water.
It has been a long time since there was so much uncertainty
in the market before planting.
What are we to do? That we should plant less is certain, but how
much less and what should we plant more of? These are the debates
around the camp fires. Grain SA and all other role-players in the
market can give advice, but you are the only one who can make the
final decision.
It is quite a desolate place to be when such a decision must be
taken. The early rains just accelerated everything.
During the past month there was a very important land reform court
case in which Grain SA was involved via Agri SA. The case was
an appeal against a verdict that the market value of land expropri-
ated for land reform, was arbitrarily reduced by 20% by the judge as
the landowner’s so-called contribution towards land reform.
The question of what the Constitution implies to be a fair and
equitable remuneration, has by far not yet been resolved, but it is
not just a thumb suck discount on the market value; that is for sure!
The way the governing party handles the succession of leadership,
will have a massive influence on the number of votes it will get in
2019. This number of votes will determine whether they will again
have the sole opportunity to govern the country or whether they will
have to do it in coalition with another party.
This is exactly where the problem lies. Is it going to be a blue or
a red coalition? This coalition move can be the determining factor
for agricultural land and other property rights in South Africa.
A blue coalition will most likely not want to change the Constitu-
tion and a red coalition will hopefully not obtain enough support to
change it.
Nevertheless, those remain a big risk. There is continuous specula-
tion about it. What all these scenarios tell me, is: Plan for everything,
but to leave the country, is still not an option.
While writing this article, the 2017 Agri SA Congress was imminent.
It seems as if this spirit of discord has not only taken hold of our
political leaders, but is also rearing its head in organised agriculture.
Is there then no place left where matters can just be normal?
Possibly not. When the pressure in our household became high, we
always warned everybody to be kind to one another. This rule surely
also applies to organised agriculture. Let us not attack each other
while Rome is burning.
My concern is that in the process we might lose leaders who simply
do not feel up to giving their own time and energy (for free) to en-
gage not only with government daily, but also with colleagues in own
ranks. That is exhausting.
I wonder how long it would take our own vice-president Ramaphosa
to possibly also decide that it is much more pleasant to sit under
the trees watching his buffaloes’ horns grow rather than carry the
burden of a country and its peoples’ woes from day to day. Let us
hope he endures!