‘Communal farmers cry foul’

DEAR editor, please allow me to comment on your leading article of your Friday edition of February 1.

The complaints uttered are not new; what is new is only the narrow perspective of the communal farmers. Affected are all the farmers who sell livestock via the auction system. And in the ‘all’ the commercial farmers are included, too. It is the system which is to be faulted. It is the capitalistic system. This we have to understand. If we are unable to change this exclusive system we have to, at times, carry it as a heavy burden, and at other times, we use it to our ‘benefit’. However, even then it is still exclusive – because that is its nature – and someone will get hurt by it. At times we ‘love’ this system and at the moment, we, that are the communal farmers, despise it. However, we are unable to take it away. To do that, we would have to change our country, our constitution and our state’s very foundation.
There are means to defend the farmer’s interest. Farmers have tried that at all time. But because the farmer is what he is, all efforts failed. And let me state this, it would be easier to change the capitalistic system than to change the farmer – he is inert, he is stubborn and never ever prepared to co-operate fully with his peers.

A retired farmer
By email

---