AGRICULTURAL NEWS - In a statement, which clearly outlined the perilous state of South Africa’s national finances, made worse by the economic strive that resulted from the national lockdown to contain the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, there was some good news for the farming sector.
It was announced in the Supplementary Budget, which the Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni described as “a bridge to the October 2020 medium-term budget policy statement”, that R3 billion had been allocated as an equity investment to recapitalise the Land Bank.
This was over and above government guarantees of R5,7 billion, which had not been sufficient to enable the bank to raise adequate funding, and to prevent the entity from defaulting on its debt obligations on 1 April.
