Agricultural financing remains one of the toughest challenges for farmers in South Africa after the collapse of Landbank.

“The economic growth prospects for this year of 5% and higher, which are cited by different commentators for various optimistic reasons,1)2) are not realistic,” says Fanie Brink, an independent agricultural economist.

Now that the Constitution 18th Amendment Bill has been formally tabled and is on the National Assembly’s order paper under “further business”, a few facts need to be highlighted. No biased commentary or speculation.

South Africa’s tragically high unemployment has frequently been described as a “ticking time bomb”.

Following a surge to an all-time high of 75 in the second quarter of this year, the Agbiz/IDC Agribusiness Confidence Index (ACI) retracted back to 67 points in the third quarter.

Now that the Constitutional Court has ruled that the local government election must be held between 27th October and 1st November 2021, parliamentary proceedings are to be paused from (10th September) until 2nd November (after the local poll).