The warning from Michael Nethavhani, from the South African Weather Service, comes as the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development held an awareness campaign on wildfires and drought in Qwaqwa. Veld fires caused havoc in central South Africa last year when thousands of hectares of veld were destroyed.

Stock theft remains an issue in parts of the Free State, and in order to combat this crime, the Department of Agriculture and Land Reform says it will continue to work closely with relevant stakeholders, organised agriculture, and commodity groups within the agricultural sector. MEC Thembeni Nxangisa made this announcement recently during his budget speech. He announced that an amount of R4.5 million has been set aside for risk management with regard to stock theft in the Free State.

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AND...Foot and Mouth Disease has now been reported on four farms in the North West. This is according to Dr Langa Madyibi, director of Veterinary Services at the North West Department of Agriculture. He says they are implementing all the necessary control measures in a bid to keep the spread of the disease at bay. Madyibi adds that all of these farms are in a radius of three kilometres from one another, and notes that the parameter of their investigation to find any more infected areas has widened to ten kilometres, which allows them to monitor and track the diseases if it were to spread. Madyibi says some of the measures that have been put in place include quarantine, surveillance, and movement controls.





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