Agri SA welcomes agriculture DG's suspension

2012-06-26 20:07

Johannesburg - Farmer union Agri SA on Tuesday welcomed the suspension of the director general of the department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

The department announced earlier it had suspended Langa Zita.

"Cadre deployment not only holds unacceptable risks for service delivery at all government levels, but is also unfair to individuals such as Mr Zita who should not have been appointed in the post and who has now been suspended," said Agri SA spokesperson Johannes Möller.

The organisation's dissatisfaction with service delivery had been brought to a head by Zita's statements over the past year.

These had "served as evidence of his ignorance of and sluggish way of addressing problems of commercial agriculture", Möller said in a statement.

He hoped the post would be filled by someone with proven management experience and knowledge of the agricultural industry.

The department said senior department official Sipho Ntombela was acting director general. No reason was given for the suspension, and the department was not immediately available for comment.

The Democratic Alliance also welcomed Zita's suspension.

"Mr Zita has done little to put this struggling department back on a solid footing, and the DA has in the past called for him to be removed from his post," DA MP Annette Steyn said in a statement.

- SAPA