24 March 2024
Will this disaster jeopardise people’s jobs? That was the pertinent question Saki Mokoena, Free State MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, asked Martin Wipplinger, a farmer from Brandfort, on a Sunday afternoon in August 2023.
Around them, the earth was charred black as far as the eye could see. More than 20 farms were burnt by a runaway wildfire that raged for two days, affecting virtually the entire southeastern part of the Brandfort district. Mokoena and a delegation of provincial officials visited that day to witness the damage firsthand.
“We showed the MEC what a disaster looks like. I showed him what 300 sheep and 19 pregnant cows burnt to death look like. And I’m not even talking about the 9 000 hectares of grazing land that burnt on my farm, as well as all the other damage,” says Wipplinger.
His response to the MEC was that there was certainly a risk that people could lose their jobs. Farmers suffered severe financial losses and some farms were burnt from corner post to corner post.
“But they know we’ll find a way. He probably saw that I’m not the kind of guy who will abandon my workers. It’s as if the delegation had a sense of reassurance that we will make plans, and my warnings didn’t make an impact.”
Since then, the grass has regrown after good rains in December and January, although it hasn’t reached the same volume as before the fire. Farmers have repaired their fences and planted new poles. The pregnant cows that survived will soon be weaning their calves.
However, there has been virtually no rain in February and March, and the Free State is very dry. Warnings have already been issued that this year’s fire season year may start earlier than usual due to the dry conditions.
Disaster area not declared
Amid this bad news, the national government decided not to declare the Free State a disaster area after last year’s fires, which burnt more than 721 000 hectares in the province.
Dr Takisi Masiteng, head of the Free State Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, recently informed the committee for public accounts and finances in the Free State legislature that the R44 million set aside by the provincial government for disaster management assistance will now be used for other projects.
According to Netwerk24, Masiteng said the national Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) had to declare the province a disaster area first. The Free State Cogta directed such a request to the national department, but it was rejected.
Responding to a question from African Farming about whether Brandfort farmers who suffered damage received any state support, Wipplinger said no help came from the state and they didn’t expect it.
“People said we should try to see if we can get disaster aid, but I don’t know how it works if they don’t declare the area a disaster zone. There has also been no communication from the state’s side on how the process works.”
During the MEC’s visit, Mokoena asked if there was anything he could do to help. “I said let’s start from the beginning. The S-roads, the secondary dirt roads, it’s the responsibility of the Free State provincial government to maintain them. The S103 road that passes by us is so overgrown that two cars can’t pass each other. We couldn’t do controlled burns because we’ll never be able to stop a fire as long as the road is overgrown like that.”
Wipplinger says farmers in his district scrape roads themselves if they can afford it. “But the road is just too much; it costs too much money if you have to do everything. Then the official from the roads department who was there that day said they would make a plan to clear the roads.”
According to Wipplinger, this has not yet happened.
Farmers helped each other
Fellow farmers, agricultural organisations, the animal welfare association and private aid providers intervened at the time to meet the needs of people and animals and provide immediate assistance.
Wipplinger says it deeply affected him when a black farmer from the southern Free State showed up at his farm with a pickup truck and a trailer full of feed bales that he had bought. “I didn’t know the man. He’s an emerging farmer who doesn’t have much himself, but he opened his heart to help.”
Disaster aid would have been extremely valuable, says Wipplinger. They had to immediately replace infrastructure, such as fences and poles, and it was expensive. “It would have been easy at that time to cut the 18 job opportunities on my farm to 10. It would have saved me a significant amount.
“But what about those people? What about their families? We all do our best to prevent job losses. It doesn’t give them the right to relax because the farmers are trying to make a plan themselves.”
Questions have been sent to the Free State Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, and answers will be added if received.
