Thursday 29 November 2012

Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson

"She has literally been fiddling while our agricultural heartland burns," Democratic Alliance spokeswoman Annette Steyn said in a statement.

"It is her responsibility to ensure adequate disaster relief funding transfers from the national budget to provinces ravaged by natural disasters."

She claimed Joemat-Pettersson had issued no instructions to secure relief from the national budget for provinces affected by fires.

The DA was also unhappy that Joemat-Pettersson had not called for an assessment of the extent of fire damage.

Steyn said this was "the last straw", and accused the minister of a number of failings in the past three weeks.

"[Joemat-Pettersson] implicitly condoned violence in the Western Cape by saying that she would instruct the National Prosecuting Authority to withdraw all charges... against those responsible for causing bloodshed in the wildcat [farm labour] strikes."

She also failed to reduce the total allowable catch for rock lobster, despite scientific evidence that the present quotas put the sustainability of the marine delicacy at risk.

"[Joemat-Pettersson] displayed a blank cheque attitude toward public money."

This was a reference to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's finding that Joemat-Pettersson had violated the executive ethics code during a trip to Sweden in December 2009.

The business trip was combined with a family holiday, which started on December 23, at the end of her official trip.

Madonsela said on Monday the department's acting director general should recover about R150 000 the minister incurred for return flights for her two children and their au pair from Sweden to South Africa in January 2010.

The ministry's spokeswoman Palesa Mokomele responded to this on Tuesday.

"The perception by the media that the minister was extravagant is rejected with the contempt it deserves."

The ministry, however, welcomed Madonsela's recommendation of remedial action.

Mokomele said she would respond to Steyn's statement as soon as possible.
Original article Here

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