The Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs would like to warn members of the public against a scam doing rounds, involving people soliciting money from unemployed graduates applying for advertised Agriculture Entrepreneur Development programme.

The Department advertised 120 vacancies earlier this month, with the closing date for applications being 20th April 2018.

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The Department has received a high volume of applications and has just started with the selection processes that will lead to interviews. Once selected, the graduates will be placed in several farms across the province, for their entrepreneurial skills development and on-the-job training.

“It has come to our attention that some of the applicants have received a call or an SMS requesting that they pay five thousand rands (R5000) to guarantee their placement.

Such a request for payment has no basis and must be reported to the nearest police station”, said MEC Vusi  Shongwe.

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The Department categorically states that the advertised Agriculture Entrepreneur Development programme placement is not to be paid for. The applicants should register with the Office of the Premier Integrity Unit about any such payment request. The official to contact is Mr Thulani Nkuna at 013 766 2183/2021.