Tonnes of donations make their way to Free State farmers affected by devastating veld fire

Almost 60 trucks will transport tonnes of donations to farmers affected by the recent raging veld fire in the Free State, according to lobby group AfriForum.

The inferno destroyed an estimated 100 000 hectares of Free State farmland and led to the death of game and livestock.

News24 previously reported that the fire was believed to have started during a service delivery protest, in which 17 people were arrested on charges of public violence and malicious damage to property.

Boshof, Dealesville, Hertzogville and Hoopstad were some of the areas affected by the devastation.

The donations were separate from a roughly R4.5 million raised in cooperation with other organisations, such as Agri NW, Free State Agriculture, Caring Daisies, Gift of the Givers, Saai, the Solidarity Helping Hand, TLU North West, Vuilskapie, Boeredroogtehulp SA, Save the Sheep, Droogte Hulp and Boere in Nood.

Hundreds of tonnes of fodder have already been sent to the Free State.Almost 60 trucks will transport tonnes of donations to farmers affected by recent fires in the Free State.Supplied AfriForum

News 24 previously reported that Agri SA had donated R300 000 to assist the affected farmers and Free State Agriculture previously said it would make R100 000 available to transport donations to farmers in need and would coordinate the distribution of donations.

The donations collected by AfriForum and various other organisations are expected to be transported to farmers on Saturday.

“The public delivered thousands of boxes [containing] tinned food, long life milk, toiletries, sugar, flour, coffee, tea, rusks and medicine to AfriForum’s head office in Centurion over the past few days,” the group said in a statement.

“The first trucks loaded with these boxes will be sent to the Free State on Saturday, where at least 100 000 hectares of pasture were destroyed by fire in among others Dealesville, Hoopstad, Bultfontein, Warrenton and Boshof. From there, the goods will be distributed by local agricultural organisations to farmers who were affected by the fires.”

Henk Maree, spokesperson for and coordinator of AfriForum’s Box for a Farmer project, said that the food donations were more than sufficient to take care of the needs of the farmers.

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