27 Mar 2014

Farmers in the Kgatleng District will have to wait for the next financial year to get their payments, which amount to more than P11 million.

Speaking during the on-going Kgatleng District full council meeting, the district agricultural coordinator, Mr Malefane Segonetso said their main challenge was the Government Accounting and Business System (GABS) system as it worked slowly.

Meanwhile, offices in other districts were able to pay their farmers on time as they were able to access the GABS system. Mr Segonetso said due to the slowness of the payment system, money was depleted as they all paid from the same vote.

He said they were upgrading their system so the same problem would not recur again. “Funds in the months of February and March 2014 were not sufficient hence payments have to be suspended until next financial year,” he said.

Nevertheless, the agric coordinator said they were able to pay more than P5.6 million to farmers 6992 hectares that were ploughed. Mr Segonetso further said more than 16 000 hectares had been ploughed. He told the councilors that some farmers had been blacklisted for not caring for their fields.

Mr Segonetso said government spent a lot of money to assist farmers to plough but others neglected their fields after ploughing. He added such farmers were blacklisted and would not get assistance again from the government.

The agric coordinator said some farmers had not fenced their fields with the result animals had free access into them and to destroy their crop. Ends