Three recent articles in the Daily Dispatch gave us three views of our province.
Pali Lehohla, the statistician-general of South Africa, speaking at a Dispatch Dialogue last week, painted a picture of a province in crisis.
Not only are we last in the country by many significant measures, but we are continuously sliding downwards, losing human and financial capital to other provinces at an alarming rate.
He attributes the loss of skilled labour through mass migration to poor planning, and calls on us “to bring intelligence in the process of informed planning”.
At the other end, sounding more optimistic, MEC for Rural Development and Agrarian Reform Mlibo Qoboshiyane was giving awards to 16 Eastern Cape women who had excelled as farmers, stating “the Eastern Cape is the basket for food security in the country”.
Well, we are top of the line in something it seems.
Yet the other picture of our province relates to crime. Rural crime and its impact on farming communities and business start-ups in our rural communities is epidemic. The scale of the problem was outlined in a Dispatch report a few days ago reporting that last Saturday 15 armed men stole 100 sheep worth R180 000 from one farmer at Ngxaxaba. This is a staggering number for any member of a village economy to suffer.
More troubling however, is the position of Rural Development that it is not part of their mandate to provide rural security. This is strange, considering that the Department of Rural Development is injecting millions into the rural economy for development projects. It ought to care about the threat of crime to its investment.
But their insular position points to another weakness. Lack of coordination and teamwork among departments, with each concerned only with its technical mandate.
The danger is that departments will end up resembling the blind men in the Indian tale of an elephant. Six blind men were asked to touch different parts of an elephant and then describe what an elephant looks like.
The man who touched the tail insisted that an elephant resembles a rope; the one who touched the ears insisted that an elephant is like a giant fan; the one who touched a leg insisted an elephant is like a big pillar. Their insular focus made them blind to make-up of the whole elephant.
Rather than dismiss rural crime as “not my problem” the department of rural development ought to adopt a problem-solving focus based on teamwork with other departments both provincial and national in order to help develop a rural policing strategy – one that works.
A solution to rural insecurity might increase the number of successful farmers, creating a surplus for export for our agricultural products.
The operation by 15 armed men can only mean one thing. Organised crime in the rural sector is a reality and if left unchecked it will continue to hamper rural development.
We are clearly no longer dealing with individual opportunistic thieves but an organised network trading in stolen farm stock and produce.
Our policing structures simply do not have the intelligence gathering skills to counter it as Lehohla points out.
But let’s face it, sometimes we are our own enemy.
Urbanisation has always been the enemy of rural development. Urbanisation shaped our negative attitudes towards the rural sector over generations.
Some people were even afraid to admit their rural origins.
Even girls at boarding schools preferred dating boys from the city.
While we Africans were spurning rural life the Afrikaners were, on the other hand, teaching their children to value farming and the land.
Our challenge is now to reverse the generations of negative attitudes towards rural life that have been with us from the earliest days of urbanisation and that still persist.
Even our own doctors are refusing to serve in rural areas.
Even our tastes have changed from the free-range homegrown chicken in the pot to the less healthy deep fried takeaway variety.
In order to boost the status and value of agriculture, perhaps the rural development department in conjunction with other departments, could embark on regular educational tours of our schools in order to educate pupils on careers in agriculture.
They might highlight much- needed professions such as, for example agriculture scientists, or the opportunities presented in starting a business of your own, opportunities of skills development in management, marketing, finance and investment. Or even opportunities to travel as international trade specialists marketing our agricultural products.
We need to grow a generation that aspires to careers and business in agriculture as enthusiastically as those who aspire to enter the health professions.
Wongaletu Vanda is a regular contributing writer for the Dispatch. Our regular bi-monthly Tuesday columnist Nomalanga Mkhize will resume in two weeks
Rural development in need of an integrated approach to agriculture
Pali Lehohla, the statistician-general of South Africa, speaking at a Dispatch Dialogue last week, painted a picture of a province in crisis.
Not only are we last in the country by many significant measures, but we are continuously sliding downwards, losing human and financial capital to other provinces at an alarming rate.
He attributes the loss of skilled labour through mass migration to poor planning, and calls on us “to bring intelligence in the process of informed planning”.
At the other end, sounding more optimistic, MEC for Rural Development and Agrarian Reform Mlibo Qoboshiyane was giving awards to 16 Eastern Cape women who had excelled as farmers, stating “the Eastern Cape is the basket for food security in the country”.
Well, we are top of the line in something it seems.
Yet the other picture of our province relates to crime. Rural crime and its impact on farming communities and business start-ups in our rural communities is epidemic. The scale of the problem was outlined in a Dispatch report a few days ago reporting that last Saturday 15 armed men stole 100 sheep worth R180 000 from one farmer at Ngxaxaba. This is a staggering number for any member of a village economy to suffer.
More troubling however, is the position of Rural Development that it is not part of their mandate to provide rural security. This is strange, considering that the Department of Rural Development is injecting millions into the rural economy for development projects. It ought to care about the threat of crime to its investment.
But their insular position points to another weakness. Lack of coordination and teamwork among departments, with each concerned only with its technical mandate.
The danger is that departments will end up resembling the blind men in the Indian tale of an elephant. Six blind men were asked to touch different parts of an elephant and then describe what an elephant looks like.
The man who touched the tail insisted that an elephant resembles a rope; the one who touched the ears insisted that an elephant is like a giant fan; the one who touched a leg insisted an elephant is like a big pillar. Their insular focus made them blind to make-up of the whole elephant.
Rather than dismiss rural crime as “not my problem” the department of rural development ought to adopt a problem-solving focus based on teamwork with other departments both provincial and national in order to help develop a rural policing strategy – one that works.
A solution to rural insecurity might increase the number of successful farmers, creating a surplus for export for our agricultural products.
The operation by 15 armed men can only mean one thing. Organised crime in the rural sector is a reality and if left unchecked it will continue to hamper rural development.
We are clearly no longer dealing with individual opportunistic thieves but an organised network trading in stolen farm stock and produce.
Our policing structures simply do not have the intelligence gathering skills to counter it as Lehohla points out.
But let’s face it, sometimes we are our own enemy.
Urbanisation has always been the enemy of rural development. Urbanisation shaped our negative attitudes towards the rural sector over generations.
Some people were even afraid to admit their rural origins.
Even girls at boarding schools preferred dating boys from the city.
While we Africans were spurning rural life the Afrikaners were, on the other hand, teaching their children to value farming and the land.
Our challenge is now to reverse the generations of negative attitudes towards rural life that have been with us from the earliest days of urbanisation and that still persist.
Even our own doctors are refusing to serve in rural areas.
Even our tastes have changed from the free-range homegrown chicken in the pot to the less healthy deep fried takeaway variety.
In order to boost the status and value of agriculture, perhaps the rural development department in conjunction with other departments, could embark on regular educational tours of our schools in order to educate pupils on careers in agriculture.
They might highlight much- needed professions such as, for example agriculture scientists, or the opportunities presented in starting a business of your own, opportunities of skills development in management, marketing, finance and investment. Or even opportunities to travel as international trade specialists marketing our agricultural products.
We need to grow a generation that aspires to careers and business in agriculture as enthusiastically as those who aspire to enter the health professions.
Wongaletu Vanda is a regular contributing writer for the Dispatch. Our regular bi-monthly Tuesday columnist Nomalanga Mkhize will resume in two weeks
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