The restriction regulations make it very difficult for the agricultural sector to get much-needed food from South Africans.
Annette Steyn, DA spokeswoman for agriculture, says the Covid 19 pandemic is facing a humanitarian crisis and the famine is threatening large numbers of people.
The DA wants the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform to be allowed to issue food delivery permits to small farmers.
So far, they have had to apply to municipalities for these permits, but this process is cumbersome and slow, Steyn said in a statement.
Louis Meintjes, president of the agricultural organization TAU SA, said they had warned Thoko Didiza, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform, of certain “barriers that do not make sense” before the establishment of the state of restriction.
One is the issuance of permits by municipalities.
In some cases, informal traders have to travel up to 100 km to obtain such a permit.
“About 30% of all food goes to the informal sector, but that’s exactly where the bottleneck is the worst. This group will also fall first if there is no food, ”he warns.
The nonsensical restrictions on farmers will aggravate food shortages in the country. Products do not reach people.
“In the interests of the country’s citizens, the government will have to seriously consider abandoning the regulations that keep food away from people,” Meintjes says.
“Hunger knows no rules and no restriction or precaution can stop it,” he warns in a statement.
He says the government was prepared to accommodate the taxi industry, but potato farmers who depend on large numbers of workers are harassed because they would transport too many people.
