Question NW491 to the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
16 March 2022 - NW491
Mbabama, Ms TM to ask the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development
What (a) is the total amount of the Presidential Employment Stimulus vouchers for subsistence farmers that were distributed in (i) all nine provinces to date and (ii) each provincial department and (b) number of farmers did her department reach in the implementation of the specified programme; (2) whether she has been informed of any incidents of the abuse of the support programme that took place in the nine provinces; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
(1)(a),(i),(ii),(b) Please refer to the Table below.
|
Province |
(a)(i),(ii) Total amount for vouchers issued |
|
|
Eastern Cape |
125 383 700,00 |
21 567 |
|
Free State |
34 216 400,00 |
5 769 |
|
Gauteng |
28 599 300,00 |
5 145 |
|
Kwa Zulu Natal |
160 846 500,00 |
28 246 |
|
Limpopo |
102 849 000,00 |
16 436 |
|
Mpumalanga |
98 366 600,00 |
17 728 |
|
North West |
79 897 000,00 |
12 051 |
|
Northern Cape |
22 898 200,00 |
3 246 |
|
Western Cape |
13 051 400,00 |
2 124 |
|
Total |
666 108 100,00 |
|
2. Yes.
- Suppliers charging marked up prices;
- Non-delivery and delayed delivery of agricultural production inputs by suppliers to farmers causing delays in implementation of projects by the farmers; and
- Collusion between some suppliers and farmers in exchanging vouchers for cash.
In an attempt to deal with these challenges, the Department suspended the project for one month in order to review and redesign its implementation plan. The Department removed all suppliers who do not have shops (middlemen) and is replacing them with agro-dealers who own shops. These beneficiaries are now going to redeem their vouchers with agro-dealers and buy items at shelf prices like any other agricultural customer. There are no extra charges on the items. This will also eliminate any chance of exchanging vouchers for cash because the redemption of the voucher and all transactions will be done inside the shop after the farmer has selected the production inputs.