What began as urgent deliberations between industry leaders and government at the NAMPO Harvest Day exhibition has officially shifted from conversation to concrete action. On Saturday, February 21, 2026, the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Dean Macpherson, joined leaders from AgriSA and Agbiz at the Peritum Agricultural Institute in Bloemfontein to sign a historic Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC).
The agreement marks the launch of the Agriculture Rural Roads Revitalisation Pilot Initiative. For the Free State—the heart of South Africa’s grain and livestock production—this partnership is a strategic intervention to salvage a road network that has reached a tipping point.
The NAMPO Origin
Minister Macpherson explicitly credited the foundation of this project to his engagements with Agbiz CEO Theo Boshoff and AgriSA CEO Johann Kotzé at the NAMPO exhibition last year. By utilizing the “Nation in Conversation” platform as a space for alignment, the parties bridged the gap between high-level policy and the “on-the-farm” reality of rural logistics.
Logistics Driven by Data
At the heart of the MoC is Infrastructure South Africa (ISA), represented by Head of ISA, Mameetse Masemola. ISA has already analyzed approximately 5,000 local and provincial roads across the province. By overlaying this with commodity flow data provided by AgriSA and Agbiz, the government can now identify “high-impact” corridors—the specific routes that carry the bulk of the nation’s maize, wheat, and livestock.
“We are no longer guessing where the need is greatest,” Minister Macpherson noted. “With this data, we can calculate the economic impact of roads that carry high volumes of output and demonstrate how much logistics costs can be reduced.”
A Permanent Voice for Agriculture
The partnership is reinforced by the appointment of Johann Kotzé and Theo Boshoff to the Ministerial Advisory Panel on Public Asset Management. This ensures that organized agriculture has a permanent role in advising the government on how public assets—including the Free State’s 13,000km provincial road network—should be managed.
AgriSA CEO Johann Kotzé emphasized that infrastructure reform must be “anchored in economic reality.” This sentiment was echoed by Agbiz CEO Theo Boshoff, who noted that the initiative would help direct infrastructure investment toward roads with the greatest potential to reduce costs for both farmers and consumers.
Why the Free State?
As the “breadbasket” of South Africa, the Free State was the logical choice for the pilot. With the support of provincial MEC Kathleen Dibolelo Mance, the findings will be used to prioritize maintenance where it provides the greatest benefit to farming communities.
As the pilot moves into implementation, it stands as a testament to the power of public-private collaboration. For the farmers who originally voiced their concerns at NAMPO, this MoC is a promise that their daily logistics pressures are finally a national priority.