COMPLEXITIES OF AGRICULTURE
The house Steenhuisen did not build
When Cyril Ramaphosa announced John Steenhuisen as the new minister of agriculture, there was a chorus of joy among many commercial farmers. However, PIET CROUCAMP cautions against the false promise of a political comfort zone that a DA minister brings.
COMPLEXITIES OF AGRICULTURE
The house Steenhuisen did not build
When Cyril Ramaphosa announced John Steenhuisen as the new minister of agriculture, there was a chorus of joy among many commercial farmers. However, PIET CROUCAMP cautions against the false promise of a political comfort zone that a DA minister brings.
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WITH the exception of the term of the current speaker and former minister of agriculture, Thoko Didiza, commercial agriculture has suffered for the past 30 years under a government that views it with distrust. This important sector of the economy has even been undermined by the ANC in certain areas.
Didiza's departure to the national assembly has many consequences, but her legacy of managing to convince her colleagues in the ANC and the cabinet to give commercial agriculture the benefit of the doubt is something that Steenhuisen cannot easily emulate.
So my question is: What will Steenhuisen's legacy then be? Where are we in terms of relationships, perceptions and mindsets when the DA minister and his chief of staff, Roman Cabanac, leave the political scene? What happened to the relationship between the state and agriculture and the complicated relationships in the demographic complexity of agricultural interests?..
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Next articlePiet Croucamp
Contributing editorPiet Croucamp is a lecturer in political science at the NWU business school.