“One clear thing is that the majority of the country is not here. Why are black people not here? This is an important event. Why is the state not here?”
According to Mlengana, the current lack of unity between various agricultural groups should be resolved.
“We must be proactive as farmers and show government that we will not allow them to dictate to us. Let’s produce an agenda for agriculture and take it to government,” said Mlengana.
There could be no sound rationale to making a statement which said that commercial agriculture must transfer 50% of land to workers he said. “We must say no when we see such things as orange trees, in once productive orchards, reduced to stumps.
“Much as we need transformation, we cannot just react to what the government does.”
Mlengana said meaningful transformation should be founded on a willingness to accept and acknowledge that there was indeed a group of people who had been historically disadvantaged.
“Transformation cannot take place in a forum environment, it is too artificial. We have to act to put agriculture in a place where the focus is on the economic value of the sector.”
Such was the current lack of government interest in agriculture that it appointed ministers who could not even spell the word, he said.
