South Africa: Agriculture, land reform and rural development warn public about Covid-19 relief fund scam

Department warns public against Covid-19 relief fund scam

The Ministry of Agriculture, Agrarian Reform and Rural Development would like to warn members of the public, especially farmers, against unscrupulous and faceless people parading as government officials. Their intention is to defraud unsuspecting farmers who have requested a COVID-19 farm relief fund out of their hard-earned cash, by promising to speed up their requests.

These faceless people are calling farmers and texting asking for R2000 as an upfront payment, promising to quickly process their requests for Covid-19 relief funds.

The text message reads: “We find that last year you requested a COVID-19 farm fund of 50,000 Rand, we want to process it quickly. So you can send 2,000 Rand so that we can process it. before December Capitec Bank W. WALSH Acc no: 1332654701 Branch code 470010. “

We call on all of our farmers to beware of these fraudulent activities coordinated by unscrupulous and faceless people, “This is a SCAM!”

Farmers and members of the public should know that they do not have to pay for any government services, especially funding for agricultural aid which aims to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. The ministry has finalized the adjudication of all applications received from farmers and the process is now closed.

Successful or successful farmers were notified by SMS.