Zuma: ANC doors open to farmers

Bothaville - The doors of the African National Congress are open to South African farmers, party president Jacob Zuma said on Thursday.

"We should not be afraid to raise any matter," he told grain farmers at the annual Grain SA conference in Bothaville in the Free State.

"No matter what kind of problem you have. I would like that relationship really to be strengthened."

Zuma said if there was no interaction between parties, matters could lead to tension that could "sit for a long time" and not be resolved.

The ANC president also told farmers that the most important message he had for them was that "South Africa needs you" - which was greeted with a huge applause.

Zuma said the governing party was "mindful" of the fact that many farms and rural areas had to endure crime - especially violent crime.

Zuma said the ANC gave particular attention to agriculture because the sector was critical for the economic development of rural areas and the country as a whole.

Agriculture in South Africa was not just about food security for the poor.

"It is central to the history of this land and its entire people. As a nation, agriculture is in our blood."

Zuma said it was against this background that resolutions were recently taken at the party's conference in Polokwane to transform land and agriculture.

"It is a matter of concern that since 1994, commercial agriculture has continued to develop in a manner that is characterised by amongst others a growing monopoly ownership, capital intensity, job-shedding and the casualisation of labour."

Zuma said it was in the interest of the farming communities, government and rural areas that all, including commercial farmers, work together to ensure a smooth redistribution of 30 percent of agricultural land before 2014.

He said transformation in agriculture should be thoroughly debated to get answers to most of the contentious issues the farming community faces.

"Many farmers are willing to work with the ANC government to promote a human rights culture and to protect the rights of farm workers and farm dwellers," he said.

The country should not shy away from issues pertaining to the rights of farmers and their workers.

Various farmers at the conference, speaking in Zuma's home language -isiZulu, urged Zuma to take the message to government that "farmers also had rights" in regards to their land and workers.

Referring to the bio-fuels industry, Zuma said the country should pursue the opportunities with caution so that food security would not be compromised.

He said maize, which was the staple food for many of the poor in the country, could not be used "as feedstock for bio-fuels production" due to food security concerns and possible price increases.

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MyselfY9Y said:

He's going to win anyway, so i don't know why he has to lie....

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