While seats are filling up fast for the upcoming Water Rights Summit in Paarl, Centurion and Pietermaritzburg, the agricultural lawyer Katlego Ngwane now also shares her top legal tips as part of a new Food For Mzansi podcast series.
“Legal Boeremeisie with Katlego Ngwane” is now available on many of the world’s leading podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Every week, she will deep dive into some of the most pressing legal and regulatory matters farmers in the country face.
Ngwane, who is also the founder of Katika Consulting, says the special 13-episode series will help farmers navigate several key legal issues they might encounter in their farming operations. This includes water rights which is currently a contentious issue facing many farmers.
“It’s not as simple,” says Ngwane about the difficult nature of helping farmers in the hot new podcast. “You need to explain things like how much water [you] need for [your] farm, what will [you] do with the water, how many hectares are [you] irrigating etc.”
Application process
In the first episode, she discusses the nitty-gritty that goes into obtaining water rights for a farm from the department of water and sanitation. But be warned, Ngwane says, the process is no piece of cake. Farmers should be ready to explain a long list of things before maybe getting a thumbs-up from the department.
Ngwane breaks this down in more detail, including the importance of water conservation.
Also, don’t think that just because your farm is located next to or near a river you can just start pumping water from it.
In the podcast, Ngwane describes this as a hard no, before breaking it down into two scenarios to explain why farmers can’t pump water from a river source without permission.
“I would advise [farmers] not to do that. It is the law and if you are found to have been using water without a requisite license, you could get into serious trouble. I’m talking about imprisonment or a fine. We’ve seen it happening in the country where people have been fined millions of Rands,” Ngwane cautions.
Register to attend Water Summit
In a series of half-day sessions, Ngwane and other experts will share insights into some of the hottest water rights dilemmas facing agriculture at the upcoming Water Rights Summit hosted by Food For Mzansi and Katika Consulting.
Click here to register for the event in Centurion. To attend the summit in Pietermaritzburg, click here, or if you’re in and around Paarl, follow this link.
Want to know more? Listen to the full episode of Legal Boeremeisie with Katlego Ngwane
Option 1: Click here to listen on Spotify (all mobile and other devices).
Option 2: Click here to listen on any Apple device.
Option 3: Click here to listen on Google Podcast
READ NEXT: Meet agri lawyer Katlego Ngwane, the ‘legal boeremeisie’
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