Farmers warned of funding scam
Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development’s spokesman, Reggie Ngcobo Ngcobo appealed to all farmers to be alert.
Farmers who’ve applied for the agricultural Covid-19 relief fund are warned of an ongoing scam to ‘fast-track’ applications.
The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development’s spokesman, Reggie Ngcobo said unscrupulous individuals are posing as government officials.
“These people approach their target promising to fast-track their applications,” explained Ngcobo.
“They then phone or send text messages demanding an upfront payment of R2 000.”
According to Ngcobo, the text message reads: “We see that last year you have applied for Agricultural Covid-19 fund of R50 000, we want to process it fast so can you send R2 000 so we can process it before December. Capitec Bank W. WALSH Acc no: 1332654701 Branch Code 470010.’
Ngcobo appealed to all farmers to be alert: ‘This is just a scam, it’s not from our office. Farmers and community members do not have to pay for any government service, especially agricultural relief funding which is meant to mitigate the impact of Covid-19.”
He said that the department has finalised the adjudication of all applications received from farmers and the process is now closed.
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