Political analyst Max Du Preez on Tuesday 31 May told deciduous fruit industry players that South Africans were “overreacting” on the issue of the Land Expropriation Bill.
“We are a constitutional democracy. You cannot make an act in Parliament that is contrary to the spirit and letter of the constitution,” he said.
Du Preez was speaking at the annual HORTGRO Science Technical Symposium 2016, which seeks to bring industry players up to speed with the latest research, technology and innovation.
According to Du Preez the bill might go through the constitutional court where a few definition changes would be a likely scenario.
“It is not bad legislation – it is legislation we need,” he said.
Du Preez emphasized that land was not an agricultural problem, but a political one and that the “give our land back” narrative was a myth.
He said only one-third of black South Africans expressed a desire to own agricultural land.
Du Preez predicted that the credit ratings agency Standards & Poor’s would downgrade South Africa to junk status on Friday.
He said that it would have serious economic and political implications despite being “factored in” and expected by financial markets.
“There is a possibility that President Jacob Zuma, who has been actively undermining the Treasury and Pravin Gordhan while the ratings agencies are deciding what to do, wants the downgrade so that he can blame the minister of finance and use it as an excuse to fire him.”
The economic shockwave brought by the 9 December 2015 shuffling of finance ministers was a “bad day for our economy, but a brilliant day for our democracy”, according to Du Preez.
“It brought about the realisation that the economy is real, and if you upset it you will feel it the next day.”
While Du Preez expressed optimism in terms of South Africa’s functioning constitutional democracy, climate change experts were more conservative in their assessment of environmental challenges facing the sector in the future.
Prof Roland Schulze from the Centre for Water Resource Research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal said that 2015 was the hottest year on record globally, while April 2016 was the hottest April on record.
Schulze said that there was an urgent need for localised climate models and that farmers needed to consider what they would grow and where.
The Western Cape would see warming of between 1.5-3.0°C by 2050, according to Prof Stephanie Midgley from the Department of Horticultural Science at Stellenbosch University.
According to Midgley growers in the region would experience “more hot days, fewer cold days”, “reductions in winter rainfall”, and a decrease in positive chill units. This could have consequences for fruit growers who would need to plant heat resistant cultivars and use scarce resources, like water, more effectively.
The HORTGRO Science Technical Symposium 2016 kicked off on Monday 30 May with a special day dedicated to emerging growers. The goal of which was to expose new entrants to the latest science and technology that will enable them to become competitive players on local and international markets. The five day event has seen a record number of delegates this year and is the only one of its kind specifically aimed at the deciduous fruit industry in South Africa.
For more information:
Dane McDonald
Tel: 072 12 99 649