The national department of agriculture, land reform and rural development (DALRRD), working in collaboration with the KwaZulu-Natal provincial department of agriculture and rural development (DARD), is urging all Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES) applicants to avail themselves of a verification process that will be conducted.
According to Reggie Ngcobo, spokesperson for the DALRRD, the verification will be related to the farming activities that are currently happening.
“We are calling on all unverified PES applicants to check on the dates that will be made available for each district in KwaZulu-Natal, just to make sure that we verify them on the spot and we upload them,” said Ngcobo.
He added that this will help applicants to know if they are successful and able to receive their vouchers.
“We have seen there is a number of [farmers] who have not been verified,” he added.
There are requirements for the verification, and applicants are encouraged to bring along their original identity document for verification purposes.
No applicant will be verified in absence and applicants who have not been visited by department officials should come forward. If the applicant has received and redeemed vouchers, attendance won’t be required.
The Covid-19 relief programme that was suspended at the beginning of the year in January and revived in February has helped South African farmers to buy much-needed farming inputs at selected suppliers. The department wants to continue the work to ensure that everyone who has applied will be helped and therefore it’s important not to miss out on the opportunity, the DALRRD said earlier this year.
“This is our initiative together with the department of KwaZulu-Natal because we have seen there is a number of [farmers] who have not been verified for whatever reason. We are calling upon farmers in their nearest places to get verified,” said Ngcobo.
The department encourages applicants to stay on the forefront of this to see the shared links and dates as to when the verification process will take place.
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