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ActionSA notes with utter repugnance the treatment levelled at the qualified Agricultural Practitioners by the uncaring Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development.  Last year, the Department of Agriculture hired Assistant Agricultural Practitioners (AAP) under the disguise that they will be permanently absorbed in due course. 

They were promised a three-year contract at first but the Department renege from its commitment instead they gave them a recuring three months contract until their contracts were terminated indefinitely.  

The current government has failed miserably in this regard and has once again dashed the hopes and aspirations of these graduates who want to contribute constructively to our economy. 

We call upon the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and Treasury to prioritize this issue.  This week, ActionSA joined representatives of more than 4 775 former Assistant Agricultural Practitioners in Tshwane, where they delivered their memorandum to the National Treasury office.

In Q1 2024, the official unemployment rate rose to an abysmal 32.9%, while the broad unemployment rate (which includes disgruntled job seekers) increased to 41.9% in 2024. 

Unemployment in the rural areas and small platteland towns is more than alarming and this is causing record and unprecedented urbanisation with job seekers leaving already struggling families to seek jobs in the cities. 

These people then end up living in unimaginable socio-economic circumstances in twilight zones on the periphery of cities with no service delivery and zero dignity. 

With production potential in SA which lies fallow and up to ninety percent of all government-initiated agriculture-based project fail which compounds rural poverty. The only real economic activity taking place in rural areas is the building of houses with no regard for the Spatial Planning Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA) which will have devastating long-term consequences for agricultural production. 

The fate of the Agricultural graduates which has flattered only to deceive is not only a travesty for those graduates, that have a passion for agriculture, but for the improvement’s agricultural production in communal farming communities. 

We will never improve our agricultural production without critically required agricultural extension services, as effective efficient and economic agricultural production is a scientific endeavour. 

As ActionSA we have committed to support these graduates until their demands are meet.

Issued by ActionSA TeamFixSA Members Mpumi Edward and Athol Trollip