Newsmaker
Race-based water plan will destroy agriculture: Agri CEO
Agri SA's CEO has criticised a draft proposal to include race-based conditions for water licences
Christo van der Rheede, CEO of South Africa's largest agricultural federation, Agri SA, says the government's recently published draft rules introducing black shareholding requirements for new water use licences have less to do with transformation than with next year's elections, and will be “devastating” for local food production.
“The agri sector has always been committed to transformation in the space of water rights, but you cannot just dish out rights to access water on a populist basis. They must be allocated to farmers who use the water rights effectively and efficiently for the purpose of food production...
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