This was due to the exceptional rainfall received across most of the country during summer, which had resulted in “extremely vigorous accumulation of plant materials that could fuel fires more than usual. Willem Symington, chairperson of Agri SA’s Natural Resources Centre of Excellence, has told Farmer's Weekly that the time has come where we need to start managing disasters in a better way. We have to focus more on mitigation and less on crisis management,” he added. He was speaking during a webinar on Thursday, attended by more than 500 landowners.

More rain is expected over the flood-ravaged coastline of KwaZulu-Natal from Friday to Wednesday. This, after extensive damage was already reported to infrastructure, such as roads and buildings, in the region in the week of April 11, according to Johan van den Berg, an independent agricultural meteorologist. During the past few days, some areas along the coast, including Margate and some parts of Durban, received in excess of 300mm of rain in a 24-hour period. Van den Berg ascribed the dramatic rainfall to the current La Niña weather system over the area.

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More than 1.7 million hectares of land in the Northern Cape is registered under the name of the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development. This came to light when the Democratic Alliance's Annette Steyn put a question to the department, and asked how many hectares of land were registered under the name of the department in each province. The department further added in a written reply that it is also the custodian of more than 1.9 million hectares of land in the North West, while almost 395 000 hectares of land is registered in its name in the Free State.

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