WANDILE SIHLOBO: Areas of agriculture hold job-creation opportunity for new administration
The fall in agricultural employment over the past couple of decades has not been evenly spread across all subsectors, and this is important
South Africans are heading to the voting stations to elect a political party or parties to government. The Ipsos poll suggests that the governing ANC is likely to win a majority vote and therefore President Cyril Ramaphosa will remain as president. So, what should he do to boost SA’s agricultural economy in the near term? The starting point will be to articulate a clear policy framework on land reform and water rights, which will encourage investment in the agricultural sector while ensuring restorative justice, and that underutilised tracts of land are brought into full production to boost growth and employment. This must then be complemented by trade agreements that open up new markets to sell these products. We have the challenge of high unemployment in this country — 27% in terms of the narrow definition and more than 50% for youth. The unemployed are typically low skilled and some reside in provinces that have underutilised arable land — think of KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape...
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