There is a retired cattle farmer in our congregation. His father started a farm in a district widely regarded as unsuitable for cattle farming. The father was a paraplegic, moving across his farm in a wheelchair with inflated tyres. The ground was full of dubbeltjies, those hard little thorns that catch in anything that rolls over them. Every rotation of the wheel picked them up. A second rotation and the tyre would puncture. So with every turn of the wheel, he swept them back with his bare hands. Both hands. Every time. For years.
Until both palms were covered in hard callouses that told the whole story without a single word.
For many, this is the South African farmer. Farming here is not a job. It is a calling. A calling to absorb the thorns, rising production costs, labour challenges, livestock disease, and still put food on the country's table while keeping the business alive. From the large commercial operation to the most rural subsistence farmer, that calling deserves a ministry of agriculture that serves them with the same determination they bring to the land every single day.
A 2024 University of Johannesburg poll from the Centre for Social Development in Africa confirms the following. The top predictors of voter behaviour in 2024 were trust in institutions, corruption, and trust in leadership. Not policy documents. Not party manifestos. Trust. That is what people are voting on. That is what they are losing.
Every public servant exists for one reason. In a democracy, the job is to listen to the man on the street, interpret the evidence, and together with the private sector translate it into policy that protects and prospers the people. That is not a complicated idea. It is just rarely practised.
The cost is not debatable. Beef exports dropped 26% in 2025. Shipments to China, our third biggest export market, fell 69% after a ban tied directly to Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD).
Markets built over years, severely damaged. More than 90 dairy farms affected by mid-January 2026, over 210,000 animals involved, dairy losses alone crossing R1 billion. Total export losses projected at R2.6 billion by year end. Beef steak up 31%. Mince up 28%. Beef stew up 30%. The worst meat inflation since 2017. Expert warnings from veterinary and industry bodies throughout 2025 were heard but not acted on in time. Vaccines sourced by farmer organisations and private vets, ready to administer, while the ministry said no.
Governance is not about being in power. It is about what you do with it. Power held in trust must protect people, not the system that holds it. That applies to every minister, every municipal councillor, every ward representative, every public servant drawing a salary from the people they were appointed to serve. Removing a minister who mismanaged a crisis is not revenge. It is how accountability is supposed to work.
"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. And from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." — Luke 12:48 (NIV)
Scripture is plain. Those entrusted with power answer for how they use it, not just to voters, but to God.
Keep praying for our country's leaders. And keep demanding that the numbers are explained to you, because when they aren't, someone always pays the price. It is usually the people who can least afford it.
Hard callouses. Honest hands.
South Africa's farmers have always held up their end. This week was about whether their leaders hold up theirs.