‘Community protest sparked Free State wildfire’ - MEC
A number of farmers in the Free State have started mop-up operations after wildfires wreaked havoc on agriculture and livestock earlier this week.
This comes after an estimated 100 000 hectares of farmland were destroyed by wildfires in the Hertzogville and Christiana areas of the province.
The fires damaged infrastructure and led to some farmers losing everything, including their livestock.
MEC of Agriculture and Rural Development, William Bulwane, visited some of the affected farms on Wednesday afternoon.
Bulwane said preliminary investigations found that a community protest is among what sparked the fires.
“There are two types of fires here. The one fire started at the protest in Hertzogville, there was a protest and burning of tyres and they got the wind and it carried to the nearest farms and dry areas,” Bulwane explained.
Affected areas include Boshof, Hertzogville, Christiana and Dealesville.
Bulwane said they estimate the damage will run into millions of rands.
“We have not yet been able to quantify how much damage it is but by the looks of things, things are bad, there’s a lot of damage. I’m going to sit down with the team and write the report to the MEC of Cogta and see if the executive can’t declare this area a disaster because I can really see there’s a lot of damage here.
“We know that it’s Covid-19 and resources are scarce, restricted but there’s not much we can do but to help.”
Farmers had already begun writing to the department listing their losses during the fires.
Listen to Bulwane below:
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100 000 hectares of farmland destroyed by Free State fires
The fires damaged infrastructure and led to some farmers losing everything, including their livestock. Chairperson of the Hertzogville District Farmers' Union Gys Olivier says farmers are still calculating their losses. "We cannot really determine what was the cause of the fire.
