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NEW S
Mike Mlengana:
Still a devoted director-general to SA farmers
IF YOU ASKED THE
DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF
THE DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE, MIKE
MLENGANA WHAT HE IS,
A DIRECTOR-GENERAL OR
INDEED A DEVOTED
SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE,
HIS ANSWER WOULD DEFI-
NITELY BE THE LATTER.
M
ike sent out a very clear
message to a packed
Fanie Ferreira hall during the
2017 Grain SA conference held
at Nampo Park in March, when
he addressed about 500 attendees,
many of whom form the heartbeat
of South African agriculture. In
his speech Mike highlighted three
main areas of concern, namely
unity, transformation and the
contribution of the sector towards
economic growth.
UNITY
He is very adamant that “agricul-
ture must first of all be inclusive.
We can’t move forward at the
expense of others anymore.” He
then focused on one of the reasons
for failure: “We appointed people
on the basis of their political alli-
ance. And the consequence was
devastating chaos. This lack of
unity led to that and many other
disasters.” What further accentu-
ated the problem was the “lack of
integration in agriculture which
32
allowed external forces to create
uncertainty about policies and
growth.”
TRANSFORMATION
“Transformation is a must,” he
said slowly after appealing to
farmers to integrate one small-
holder farmer into their business-
es. Mike then quickly disposed of
the matter of land ownership: “I
know you are uncertain about the
land reform issue,” laying their
fears to rest by saying: “You do
not need to be afraid, we’ve got a
Constitution.”
As a fellow farmer he is aware
that farmers are good people.
Transformation also means that
every farmer must “help to surface
good things”, thus dispelling “the
perception that people in agricul-
ture are inhumane.”
CONTRIBUTION TO ECONOMY
The belief is that agriculture
contributes a mere 0.2% to the
GDP. Mike’s answer to that is a
clear: “We are not!” He said that
agriculture created the whole value
chain, but the challenge now is to
“find a way to create a value chain
that allows agriculture to stand tall
in this country.”
Agriculture needs to contribute
on another level. He informed
farmers that negotiations are
currently underway with China,
India and others so that farmers
“can plant for a market they know
exists.” Gone are the days that you
rest in wintertime - the face of
agriculture is changing rapidly.
His focus is to change the
enterprise - “So I’m going to force
a partnership instead of recapi-
APRIL/MAY 2017 • SENWES Scenario
talisation.” The focus must be on
productivity. Coupled with this
focus is Vision 2030, which has
a goal of creating 1 million jobs
by con