The year 2024 saw South Africa having a government of national unity (GNU) following the May elections which resulted in no political party winning an outright majority. This resulted in the national executive being composed of leaders of different political parties.
With agriculture headed by former official opposition leader, John Steenhuisen, many in the sector had mixed emotions about the changes he was going to bring.
General manager of Transvaal Agricultural Union (TLU), Bennie van Zyl, said it is critical to the elected government to drive investment as that is the only option to rescue the country’s economy.
Focus on growing the economy
“People are still concerned because the issue of expropriation without compensation is still being talked about even in this government of national unity, specifically by the ANC as if they are running the government alone.
“The other problem is that there has not been trust developed in terms of the policy environment which is very crucial. We are seeing individual portfolios in the government that are successful, for example, the department of correctional services led by Pieter Groenewald what can be done.
“In agriculture there is progress but we have issues with this matter of land transfer and that could lead to almost all of that land going out of production. Even when we try to give advice they are not being heard. So there are challenges in the sector and we think Mr Steenhuisen is trying his utmost best,” he said.
Van Zyl added that he is hopeful that the government of national unity is going to build trust and expertise to have a strong economy and create jobs.
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Meanwhile, in his festive message, Steenhuisen applauded the farmers and the farmworkers for going the extra mile this year to ensure that the sector continues growing amid challenges in the country.
“Without our farmers, we would not have had food security in our country, so thank you to each and everyone of you. I know this year has been very difficult in terms of people in the agricultural space. We have seen droughts, fires, floods and snow, which all of these caused havoc in the agricultural space.
“But farmers continued waking up every day contributing to the well-being of our country. I am convinced that next year is going to be a great year for agriculture,” he said.
Only time will tell
A livestock farmer from Thabazimbi in Limpopo, Steve Sekwane, said there are a lot of expectations from the government of national unity and only time would tell if it would deliver.
“I believe the next six months will test the government of national unity. So far we have seen competition of departments and ministers pushing different agendas, but what we really want to see as farmers on the ground is action-orientated changes and portfolios working together and not in silos.
“We hope the issues of water, safety, land access and financing will be dealt with by this government speedily. Importantly, we hope that entities of government departments will sing from the same hymn book as departments in terms of programmes available for farmers,” he said.
However, chief economist Wandile Sihlobo said the sentiments around the government of national unity are good and have improved the agricultural outlook going into the year 2025 despite a bad start to the year with adverse weather conditions.
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