‘LYING propaganda’ is how one subsistence farmer referred to the KZN Department of Agriculture and Rural Development‘s (DARD) R114-million drought relief programme after it was rolled out in Mtubatuba on Monday.
Mbukeni Mchunu, a livestock farmer from Nkonjane area, Ophondweni, was the first to register after having spent months writing letters to Agriculture MEC Cyril Xaba requesting such assistance.
In an interview, after registering for livestock feed and a JoJo tank, Mchunu said, ‘I am very happy to be getting assistance from the government. I have lost 15 of my 25 head of cattle in the drought but now I can feed them and make sure they get water’.
His elation was short-lived, however, as representatives of the Mtubatuba DARD office allegedly told him not to take home the feed and tank for which he had registered but that they would contact him when he can collect them.
This flies in the face of what provincial DARD representatives told the farmers at registration, that the items were theirs to take home immediately after registering for them.
Irate and confused, Mchunu and the other farmers are no better off than before the drought relief programme was announced, despite following the rules of the programme designed to assist them in their hour of need.
The Zululand Observer notified the provincial DARD office of this development but, at the time of going to print, had yet to receive an explanation of the Mtubatuba DARD office’s apparent changing of the programme’s rules.
Read more on the Zululand drought HERE
