Govt to act on drought
2003-12-28 22:16
Carel van Dyk
Cape Town - The government will embark on a needs assessment on Monday to determine how it can assist farmers and communities suffering because of drought.
Toffee Mokgethi, head of disaster prevention and support of the National Disaster Management Centre, said more than 3.5m South Africans were already reliant on tankers for their water.
In some rural areas where people are without food because of the drought, families are provided with food parcels.
About 30 000 heads of livestock have succumbed because of the drought and the department of agriculture is already providing feed to farmers.
More than 100 000 farm workers may be left jobless if the drought continues and Mokgethi said government was looking at ways to assist farmers to prevent farm workers from losing their jobs.
Farm workers in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu Natal and the Free State are especially at risk.
In reaction, the SACP has warned that commercial farmers should not use the drought as an "excuse" to lay off thousands of farm workers.
Mazibuko Jara, spokesperson for the SACP, said most comment focussed on the effect of the drought on commercial farmers, but that farm workers and communities who suffer most because of the drought were being ignored.
The crop estimations for corn, sunflowers and soya beans were much lower than expected and sugarcane production has also been adversely affected.
Mokgethi said they expected the needs assessment to be completed by the end on January.
Bully Bothma of Grain South Africa said recent rains in the Free State and North West were not enough to bring relief and that chances for a good corn harvest were slim.
"We will not survive the summer drought if it doesn't rain soon."
Carl Opperman, chief executive of Agri Western Cape, said cooler and wet weather brought relief for fruit and grape farmers, but said the Karroo, Namakwaland and Swartland were still very dry.
The South African Weather Service said the Western Cape and central parts of the country should receive normal rain between January and March.
However, there is a real possibility that rainfall may be under normal levels in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and northern KwaZulu-Natal.
- Die Burger