By The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Free State posed questions relating to the investment and operations of AgriParks and Farmer Producer Support Units (FPSU) to the Free State MEC for the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Ms Elzabe Rockman; in her response, she revealed that R57 137 876 was spent on the projects.
The DA posed a total of six questions to Rockman, in her response, she said two Agri-Parks have been established namely Sprinfontein and Thabo Mofutsanyana-SEZ) and six Farmer Producer Support Units (FPSU) established namely Makholokoeng FPSU, Odendaal FPSU, Zastron FPSU, Ficksburg FPSU, Sediba FPSU, and Kroonstaad FPSU.
She explained that the Agri-Parks programme was initiated in 2015. Sprinfontein Agri-Park was initiated (2015) and Thabo Mofutsanyana-SEZ-Agri-Park (2015) and the six (6) Farmer Producer Support Units (FPSU) namely Makholokoeng FPSU was initiated (2019), Odendaal FPSU (2019), Zastron FPSU (2020), Ficksburg FPSU (2022), Sediba FPSU (2019), and Kroonstaad FPSU (2019).
The DA is however not pleased with the results, saying more than R57 million later, there are only 71 permanent jobs and 180 seasonal jobs created.
“Investments in the AgriParks/FPSUs require further investigation, particularly the R35 629 413,00 spent on the three non-operational AgriParks/FPSUs,” said Dr Roy Jankielsohn, the DA Spokesperson for Agriculture in Free State Legislature.
Jankielsohn says the Odendaalsrus FPSU that was irrigated with R18 669 313,00 and is non-operational because of a lack of water and electricity connections, machinery and implements.
Sediba FPSU cost R16 206 609,00 and is non-operational due to conflicts with the community. Springfontein Agripark cost R753 491,00 and is non-operational due to a lack of consensus on operations at the facility.
“The reasons given for their failures indicate a serious lack of management and oversight within the Free State DARD. With more than R57 million spent, only 71 permanent jobs and 180 seasonal and temporary jobs have been created. Of the 71 permanent jobs, 51 are for security, and 10 are administrative officials, while a further 10 are involved in physical agricultural production as tractor drivers. This works out to an investment of R804 578,81 per permanent employee.
The DA will submit further questions on the exact expenditure per project and request that the Free State Legislature Portfolio Committee responsible for the DARD interrogate these FPSUs further in terms of value for money and jobs created,” said Dr Roy Jankielsohn.
