South Africa’s pothole-riddled roads, in the absence of urgently needed maintenance, pose a risk to food security in the country.
That is the dire warning from Pitso Sekhoto from the African Farmers Association of SA.
Sekhoto, also chair of the Agri-sector Unity Forum, told eNCA on Monday. “The maintenance of the roads, it’s nonexistent and this is putting farmers on the backfoot with food security, it’s coming to bite us heavily,” he warned.
He cited examples of dairy farmers struggling to transport milk and farmers struggling to get diesel supplies due to the poor state of roads.
“… The national government, provincial government and the municipalities don’t take us seriously about road maintenance as their priority.
“If we don’t fix these problems we are slowly going there [food insecurity] … No-one can put money aside to repair the roads.”
A functional rail system, he added, would have significantly reduced road congestion.
Zinhle Tyikwe, CEO of the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa (CGCSA), which represents the biggest food retailers in the country, told Business Times last month that the government was taking food security for granted in spite of the wake-up call of the July 2021 riots.
“We believe we are the most important sector in South Africa because we are feeding the country, but this is not how the government sees us.”
The industry is also battling to shield cold chains from the impact of load-shedding.
TimesLIVE
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