Minister George and Deputy Minister Singh visit the Forestry Industry
FSA is pleased to report that we had an extensive (and encouraging) engagement on Monday and Tuesday this week, (01-02 September) with Minister Dion George and Deputy Minister Narend Singh of the DFFE.
Members will recall that we reported on the previous meeting which Mr Duane Roothman (FSA Chairperson) and Mr Buhle Msweli (FSA SSG Chairperson) had with the Minister in February, in which they invited him to make this visit to the Industry.
The meeting was kindly hosted by SAPPI who provided an excellent programme of events ranging from state-of-the-art Forestry nurseries at Tweedie and Clan, a visit to a Small-scale timber growing operation (kindly hosted by Mr Buhle Msweli), a visit to the KZN Fire Hawk incident command centre (hosted by Mr Trevor Wilson), an engagement with the KZN Umbrella FPA (led by Mr Simon Thomas), an aerial and ground fire-fighting display, a tree-planting ceremony at the Shaw nursery in Tweedie, in which Minister George planted a Euclea crispa sapling (a favourite browsing species of the Black Rhino and recently posted by the Minister on his social media platforms) and a visit to the state-of-the-art SAPPI SAICCOR dissolving wood pulp mill at Umkomaas.
FSA’s Chairperson, Mr Duane Roothman (who is also Vice-President of SAPPI Forests) welcomed the delegation, thanked them for making so much time (two full days) available to us and introduced the Industry representatives to the Minister and Deputy Minister. The CEO of SAPPI Southern Africa (Mr Graeme Wild), then delivered an impactful presentation in which all of the outstanding DFFE undertakings in the Forestry Masterplan were highlighted, along with an excellent overview of SAPPI’s Southern African and global operations. He reflected on the ongoing failures by the DFFE to crowd in the private sector to recapitalise the State’s category B and C plantations, the failure of DFFE to finalise the EIAs for new afforestation, the repeated failures by DFFE to support forest protection in the areas of fire prevention and control, pest and disease management and illegal activities in the Industry and the failure by DFFE to provide support to small-scale timber growers and other new entrants into the Sector. He also pointed to the broader challenges to our Sector like the failure to repair and recapitalise key rail infrastructure, which was hurting the Sector’s international competitiveness across most companies.
In the initial responses made by the Minister and Deputy Minister, they expressed regret that it had taken so long to engage with our Sector and explained the unusually complex challenges of trying to oversee three important Sectors like Forestry, Environmental affairs and Fisheries. The Minister stated (as FSA has also done for the last twenty years), that in most other countries, important and complex sectors like Forestry, often have their own Ministries. That being said, he stated that he has familiarised himself with the Forestry Masterplan and was deeply concerned by the many lapses, especially those pertaining to his department. He advised that he would be making changes to the allocation of the Forestry Masterplan within the Department and that we could expect a major improvement in delivery from the DFFE.
He made special note of the four key DFFE failures described above, which we again raised over the two days, as each site we visited provided the opportunity to show in practical terms, how these DFFE lapses were negatively affecting the Sector. The Minister undertook further to engage with the Minister of Transport and the President on the outstanding rail challenges. Deputy Minister Singh also undertook to engage with the Deputy Minister of Transport and President on the as-yet still unresolved, South Coast rail line challenge. Mr Roothman sent them a video excerpt from the President’s address in 2022, in which he had said that he wanted the Illovo bridge to be repaired before April 2023.
We were struck by the level of genuine interest and engagement which Minister George demonstrated throughout the very-full two-day programme. He asked many insightful questions and offered his own insights about how our issues linked to those of other Sectors and to the broader historic governance challenges in our country. He said that by working more closely with the Industry, it would in turn assist him and the DFFE in some of their other portfolios. He was particularly struck by the extent of our Sector’s development and deployment of 4IR technologies, throughout the value chains, our cutting-edge research in tree-breeding and pest and disease management, our understanding of current and predicted climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation mechanisms and our fire-detection and response capabilities.
We have sent the Minister a brief summary of the key issues from the engagement (which we will circulate to members by e-mail) and we hope that the interventions which he and DM Singh are able to make, will finally get the DFFE to drastically improve their performance for our Sector.
We would like to again thank our members who participated in the visit, including our Gencom and Exco members, the CEO of Merensky Timbers, Dr Johan De Graaf, Ms Jane Molony of PAMSA, who was instrumental in setting up the first meeting with the Minister in February, our colleagues from SSA and SAWPA, who helped us to develop the messaging and Mr Buhle Msweli for the visit to his family timber farming operation. We are particularly grateful to the senior leadership team and the entire Staff of SAPPI, who put together such an outstanding exposé of our Sector, giving so generously of their time for the greater good of the Sector and for the excellent hosting and event planning.