Spokesperson for the Democratic Alliance, Reinette Liebenberg, tells OFM News that locust combat officers ,who are predominantly farmers, were employed by the National Department of Agriculture, to eradicate any locust infestation following the locust outbreaks in September last year. She adds that these farmers, farmworkers, and community members are paid by the National Agricultural Department through the provincial district office in De Aar, however, no payment has been issued. This forces farmers to take out loans to acquire the necessary resources. It is a cause for concern, adds Liebenberg. OFM News is awaiting a response from the department.

The Mahikeng stock theft unit requests community members of the North West to assist them with locating the possible owner/s of mine goats. Police spokesperson, Adele Myburgh, says that the goats were recovered at Nottingham on the Vergeleë/Bray gravel road, by a farmer on Wednesday. She adds that three of the nine goats were found dead and the remaining six were tied up. Myburgh says that the police are not ruling out the possibility of linking the unclaimed goats with the alleged stock theft incident that resulted in the murder of two Mareetsane police officers.

AND

The Port of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal is running short of space to store containers and plug points to keep containers cool, which will result in massive food wastage if not resolved urgently. Moneyweb says according to a statement by the South African Meat Processors Association and the South African Association of Meat Importers & Exporters, there are currently 290 temperature-controlled ‘reefer’ containers that require an urgent cold storage remedy, with more containers en route from international markets set to offload at the Durban port. The Associations note that the recent riots and looting severely impacted key cold storage infrastructure in the province, compounded by the recent cybersecurity hack on Transnet’s IT systems, which affected its operations and created major backlogs for both exports and imports at the port. Now that the Durban port has resumed operations, an urgent action plan by government is required to ensure imported perishable food containers are re-routed to inland cold storage facilities, the associations said.

OFM News