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Kwanalu project manager, Dr Kathy Hurly said that, “It quickly emerged that out of the 31 rural towns hit by the unrest, there were ten vulnerable towns needing critical assistance immediately. Together with the Agri SA Disaster Relief Foundation, we put plans in place to provide humanitarian aid to the most vulnerable rural communities in our province.

“The resilience of the farming community and the spirit of philanthropy of our many partners, turned this disaster into an opportunity for assisting vulnerable communities, resulting in a total of donations to the value of R5 million,” adds Hurly."

READ: Suiwelboere in trane weens roumelk wat hulle moes uitgooi gedurende KZN-onrus

She goes on to say that “re-building the decimated rural towns is not going to be easy but it does provide an opportunity to review how rural towns operate and to identify how safety, security and stability can be strengthened. The unrest of July 2021 has shown that the functioning of rural towns is critical to the survival of thousands of people in the deep rural areas of KZN.”

Hurly says that dairy farmers are the perfect example to illustrate the widening supply chain gaps caused by the unrest. She says that the unrest caused blockages, starting from the [milking] point to transporting milk to where it needs to be for the pasteurisation, the bottling process, and lastly the delivery to sales points. 

She ends the first part of the discussion by saying that “this tragedy must be used to strengthen the independence of rural towns, that the businesses of the townships and towns be better integrated ensuring solidarity into the future and that where business opportunities exist that these be investigated and funded to provide the much-needed jobs in rural areas”.

OFM News/Lee Simmons