The Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa (TAU SA) recently held its annual congress, in Pretoria. One of the highlights, according to farmersweekly.co.za, was a presentation by agricultural economist Dr Philip Theunissen on whether or not it was possible at all, in today’s turbulent economic climate, for farmers to achieve optimal profit from their farming activities. TAU SA’s members are commercial farmers, and the organisation is openly and vehemently anti-ANC.
In his opening address, TAU SA president Louis Meintjes said many South Africans had the perception that President Cyril Ramaphosa would be a knight in shining armour who would rescue South Africa from the political and economic swamp it had fallen into. However, he said, in reality, Ramaphosa was part of the problem because he is as caught up in ANC ideology as the leaders who came before him.
The ANC was hell-bent, he said, on promoting and implementing the socialist-inspired National Democratic Revolution, and the fulfilment of party ideology therefore took precedence over saving the economy: “We have to inform South African voters, especially those who voted for the ANC, and make them understand that the ANC and its alliance partners are stealing the future of South Africans.”
For most of the 20th century, South Africa’s agricultural productivity lagged behind the world average, and it was only after deregulation in the mid-1990s, following the dawn of democracy, that things started changing.
