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Mass agriculture job losses worries DA

Cape Town - The government must act urgently to stop jobs being lost in the agriculture sector, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday.

"According to Statistics SA, 73 000 jobs have been lost since the second quarter of 2013. That means that we've lost almost 10% of all agricultural jobs in the last year," DA MP Annette Steyn said in a statement.

This was a massive loss, and extremely damaging to the country's rural economy.

"As a labour-intensive industry, with the potential of absorbing tens of thousands of unemployed South Africans, we should be seeing the growth of commercial agriculture and development of the rural economy, instead of haemorrhaging jobs."

Steyn said the DA would write to agriculture portfolio committee chairperson Rosina Semenya, requesting that Agriculture Minister Senzeni Zokwana present the committee with a plan to curb the high job losses.

"The minister must, as a matter of extreme urgency, announce a plan to turn around the sector such that the goals of the National Development Plan can be achieved."

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