This, as farmers in North West allegedly still waiting to be assisted following the sever drought that hit the country. DA North West Premier Candidate, Joe McGluwa, says it is a disgrace that scores of farmers have still not received drought relief that they were promised this by provincial government. This necessitates the Department to communicate a workable strategy to the agricultural structures in order for farmers to stay informed of developments. He says R31 million has been set aside to implement drought intervention projects during the 2018/2019 budget adjustment, while another R309 million was sent from National Treasury in October 2018 to assist farmers across the province - and yet farmers are suffering through the persisting drought.

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In a bid to reduce the number of stock theft occurrences across the province, Free State Agriculture has established a stock theft helpline to assess the enormous impact of livestock theft. According to Safety and Risk Analyst at Free State Agriculture, Jane Buys, crime statistics show that between 67% and 80% of stock theft is not reported, adding livestock losses in the Free State are valued to be between R1 billion and R3 billion a year. Buys says the Free State and Northern Cape were the provinces that suffered the most from stock theft in 2018. She says there were approximately 27 000 incidents in the Free State only last year, and, that stock theft is the leading agricultural crime in the Free State, where a commercial farmer experiences about eight incidents every year. She says they want to encourage farmers to use the helpline so that livestock theft can be combated effectively.

OFM News/Michael Tlhakudi