Plans for college well on the way

The “brain” behind Agricultural Colleges for Africa (ACA), Howard Blight, confirmed this week that negotiations to use the show grounds in Tzaneen to establish the first Agricultural College in Limpopo is well advanced.

The future of the show and GTM’s agri expo is not in jeopardy at all.

“We intend to establish a network of agricultural colleges throughout Southern Africa and after investigating numerous options and considering several venues in Limpopo, we have concluded that the Tzaneen show grounds are the logical choice to establish the first college”.

Blight added that negotiations with Agri Letaba, owners of the show grounds, are still in an early stage, but he is confident that headway will be made soon, as the college will be a massive boost for Tzaneen.

The President of Agri Letaba, Pieter Vorster, confirmed that negotiations were under way, but he stressed a lot of options still have to be considered and evaluated before a final announcement can be made.

“We enjoy the support of the Greater Tzaneen Municipality, Provincial politicians and officials, and the Tzaneen Chamber of Commerce.

However, negotiations are currently at a sensitive stage and it is important that no premature rumours are spread or unreasonable expectations created before the actual signing of any form of formal agreement,” Vorster added.

The Mayor of Tzaneen, Dikeledi Mmetle, is on record promoting the idea of a tertiary agricultural institution for Tzaneen and the area. She is supported in this by senior officials who all realize the massive injection an agricultural college will bring to this region.

The LETABA HERALD can confirm that the vision of ACA is to start building hostels as soon as possible with the vision of opening the new college’s doors in January next year with an initial targeted number of students of between 100 to 300.

These numbers will grow annually.

The existing infrastructure at the show grounds make it the ideal venue to establish such a facility.