Left: Trade, Industry, and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel, Dr Siyabonga Madlala, the chairperson of SAFDA, and Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza. Picture: Willem Phungula
Durban — After struggling for nine years fighting for permanent membership of the predominantly white South African Sugar Association (Sasa), the black farmers association, the South African Farmers Development Association (Sadfa) has been finally accepted as a member.
Speaking at the gala dinner to celebrate the permanent membership, the founder and chairperson of Sadfa, Dr Siyabonga Madlala, said his organisation has every reason to celebrate the recognition after fighting for it for nine whole years.
He cited the lack of transformation within the association and the reluctance by Sasa to accept his organisation as the reason for the delay.
Madlala said the acceptance as permanent members means that the black farmers will have a voice in the matters of the sugar industry. He thanked everyone who supported his association to obtain permanent member status, including the journalists to whom he gave awards as a token of appreciation.
“It’s a big victory for black farmers, who will now have a voice in the industry. We are now an official stakeholder of the sugar industry in South Africa,” said Madlala.
Safda was founded in 2015 to represent black small-scale sugar cane growers. The event that took place on Thursday night was held in Durban and was attended by both Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza and Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel and their deputies Mcebisi Skwatsha and Nomalungelo Gina.
Both ministers congratulated Safda on the attainment of its status in the sugar industry.
Speaking on behalf of Sasa, its chairperson advocate Fay Mukaddam described the night as a historic moment that will go down in the annals of history as the one that ushered in a paradigm shift in terms of transformation for the sugar industry.
She said the gazette promulgating Safda as a permanent member of Sassa was the culmination of intensive work of the all-inclusive industry leadership, council, the collaborative efforts with Patel, his team including his sectoral adviser Harald Harvey, agro-processing and legal units within the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition.
She added that as a matter of background, in 2018, Safda was included in the Sasa constitution as a member, and subsequently made a permanent member in 2020 through the amendment of the Sasa constitution, adding that the transitional provisions and small-scale grower delivery amendments were made permanent through the March 28, 2024, gazette.
“As Sasa, duly mandated to represent the sugar industry, we have been leading efforts aimed at ensuring meaningful transformation across the whole value chain.
“To this end, the IkuSasa task team, comprising both the growers and millers, has been hard at work. The gazette and other amendments (to the Sugar Industry Agreement and the Sasa constitution) are the outcomes of IkuSasa processes.
“The gazette, in particular, is colossal in significance in that it represents a major development for the direction of transformation and inclusion of all of our growers in the industry through the permanent status of the Safda representation,” said Bukaddam.
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