By Simon Nare
Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen has hit back at a Pretoria-based organisation which he accuses of manufacturing claims that he and the department have introduced pro-black policies.
At a press conference to set the record straight in Cape Town, Steenhuisen revealed on Tuesday that Sakeliga CEO Piet le Roux has been spreading misinformation.
“Mr Le Roux seeks to falsely portray me as some BEE tsar in order to try and drive Sakeliga’s own membership and income through manufacturing outrage and sensationalism. I wish today to set the record straight and refute Mr Le Roux’s baseless sensationalism,” said Steenhuisen.
The minister dismissed as absurd allegations by Le Roux that he has established several transformation funds and gazetted several statutory levies. He pointed out that the statutory requirement has been in practice within the department since 1996.
He added that Le Roux conveniently and purposely left out the fact that these levies were not determined by the minister, but instead were voluntarily initiated by the 12 commodity groups themselves and were simply forwarded to the National Agricultural Marketing Council to investigate and initiate the report to the minister.
“Apart from the fact that the act and measures were implemented almost a decade before I became minister, it is also important to underscore that the application for statutory measures by commodity organisations is a voluntary process. This is not something imposed by ministerial diktat as Le Roux tries to imply. It is something that the industry chooses,” he said.
Steenhuisen said it was also worth mentioning that Le Roux was under the impression that the Department of Agriculture issued “water rights” and that the minister wanted to racialise these.
He said this was another false claim as water rights and licensing were done by the Department of Water and Sanitation through a process that did not involve the agriculture minister.
On transformation funds, Steenhuisen said Le Roux proceeded to paint an entirely false narrative which said as minister, he had created big transformation funds which Steenhuisen directed and determined how they were spent.
“Again, this is entirely false. Basic research would have revealed that the statutory levy is paid over to the commodity groups. It is these independent commodity organisations, not government or the minister, who decide upon the use of them.
“I have no role whatsoever in the utilisation of these funds, selecting beneficiaries or directing which projects or individuals must be chosen for assistance.
“Le Roux and his organisation are always extremely quick to cite the Constitution to underpin and justify their various campaigns. You cannot, however, cherry pick which parts of the Constitution you wish to uphold and those parts that you wish to conveniently ignore,” he said.
Founded in 2011, Sakeliga is a South African business organisation advocating for free markets and a stable constitutional order to drive economic growth. Representing over 12,000 members, it actively challenges policies such as the Employment Equity Amendment Act and the National Health Insurance Act through litigation.
It opposes BEE and race-based hiring, arguing for a business environment focused on value and competitiveness.
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