The Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform (DRDAR) has introduced innovative funding mechanisms to support the commercialisation of Black farmers.
Rural Development and Agrarian Reform MEC, Nonceba Kontsiwe, said the department established the Eastern Cape Agriculture Blended Funding Scheme to provide access to finance for Black farmers to become commercial and participate in the value chains.
This was made possible through collaboration with the Eastern Cape Rural Development Agency (ECRDA), Eastern Cape Development Cooperation (ECDC), Small Enterprise Finance Agency (SEFA) and Land Bank.
In 2023/24, DRDAR and ECDC distributed R32 million to 18 agricultural enterprises, creating 455 jobs.
The funding has enabled businesses to invest in equipment, infrastructure, and production inputs, enhancing their revenue.
‘We are committed to this initiative with a budget of R75 million allocated to attract equal or more funding from development finance institutions (DFIs) and the private
sector over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). The budget for 2024/25 is R25 million,’ Kontsiwe said.
The department recently entered into an agreement with the Land Bank to collaborate on funding and developing clustered and aggregated commodities value chains in the province.
‘This collaboration aims to facilitate access to affordable funding for farmers without stringent terms to support primary and agro-processing activities, to enable Eastern Cape farmers to access the R300 million allocation from the Land Bank.
‘The finalised aggregation model and financing tools will be tested in pilot projects for grains, wool, mohair, citrus farming, dairy, vegetables, and livestock in the province,’ Kontsiwe said.
Kontsiwe added that the department, in partnership with the ECRDA, aims to support Black commercial farmers in exporting their produce to international markets, thereby boosting their competitiveness.
‘The revolving credit facility is designed to offer operational funding to address the fin
ancial needs of high-value and export-oriented commodities during production cycles. A budget of R4 million has been earmarked for the ECRDA to implement this program in the 2024/25 financial year, serving as an incentive to attract more Black commercial farmers to participate in export markets,’ the MEC said.
A 30-year-old suspect is expected to appear in court soon for the attempted murder of two police officers as well as the murder of a neighbour, said the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks).
The suspect who also faces charges of the possession of unlicensed firearms among others, was sought in KwaZulu-Natal and in Gauteng. The suspect was arrested and detained in Johannesburg in an intelligence driven operation on Saturday.
The arrest was made by the Serious Organised Crime Investigation’s Tactical Operations Management Section (TOMS) assisted by the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial tracing team, SAPS National Modus Operandi Centre and Johannesburg District Aggravated Robberies team.
‘The Pre
toria based Hawks’ TOMS team in collaboration with the Pietermaritzburg Serious Organised Crime Investigation operationalised information that was received and the team was granted a warrant of arrest to detain one suspect at the Jeppe area …. in connection with murder, possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition [and] also attempted murder of two police officials as well as a murder of his neighbour in KwaZulu-Natal,’ said the Hawks in a statement on Sunday.
According to the Hawks, several attempts to secure his appearance in court were in vain.
‘The suspect was also expected to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrates court on 28 July 2024, possession of unlicensed firearm but failed to do so because at the time he was also being sought for murder in KwaZulu-Natal.
The suspect will [be] be appearing in court soon on [the] Jeppe case facing charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm then transferred to KwaZulu-Natal where he will answer to [the] murder and attempted murder as per [the] Estcourt cas
e as well as murder as per [the] Loskop case. All the crimes were committed this year,’ said the Hawks.
Murder, attempted murder suspect to appear in court
Source: South African Government News Agency