AGRICULTURE, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson says she ran into powerful opposition once she started investigating theft and corruption in the fisheries department.
“The fishing company in question made it clear that they were going to destroy me and made physical threats to both me and my children. They first tried to bribe me, then they threatened me, and when they couldn’t get that right they started an orchestrated campaign against me,” she says.
That’s definitely serious stuff. But which fishing company was this? And why has the minister not reported it to the police? After all, she has no alternative other than to do so in terms of chapter 7 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, 2004. So why hasn’t she? Or is this story she told Leadership magazine just that, a story?
Apart from the undeniable fact that her ministry, one of the country’s most important, barely functions, it is clear that Joemat-Pettersson is the African National Congress-South African Communist Party’s not-so-secret weapon in its determination to make the Western Cape ungovernable. We know, for example, that she had a wonderful time during the farm workers strike, making inflammatory speeches and generally egging the strikers on. Some of those involved, says Agri-Western Cape CEO Karl Opperman, were not even farm workers — they were bused into critical areas to intimidate labourers.
Now it has been revealed that she paid R4.1m to the Black Association of Wine and Spirits Industries on October 8, at a particularly sensitive time during the dislocations and farm burnings. The key issue is what is the government doing taking sides in a labour dispute? Surely its role should be neutral, active only in the sense of making strenuous efforts to find common ground between the parties? It certainly shouldn’t extend to a Cabinet minister handing millions to an aggrieved party.
Meanwhile, her ministry is a mess. I have commented at length on the debacle in fisheries. Now there’s the issue of avian ’flu, which is devastating what is left of the country’s ostrich herds. Back in September, Gerrit van Rensburg, the Western Cape agriculture MEC, wrote to Joemat-Pettersson stressing the urgency of the situation.
But nothing’s been done. Another outbreak has been detected near Oudtshoorn despite the huge cull of 50,000 birds in 2011. South Africa hasn’t been able to export ostrich meat to the European Union for the past two years. Losses are way in excess of R1bn. Nearly half the country’s producers have deserted the industry, with huge job losses.
Unsurprisingly, calls have been made for Joemat-Pettersson to be fired, but there’s fat chance of that happening. Besides, she’s a really good communist — she gets R200,000 a month in child maintenance and unlimited travel from the estate of her late husband.
