By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

SOCIAL Services Minister Frankie Campbell said yesterday he believes there should be tougher penalties for people who steal from farmers, saying the issue is a vexing problem in his constituency that needs to be addressed.

Mr Campbell told MPs that since being elected to represent Southern Shores, he has received increasing complaints from residents about their food crops being raided and stolen by thieves.

He said it’s unfair for people who choose not to work to take the bread out of the mouths of hardworking Bahamians, who are trying to make ends meet.

“Farmers in that area, and I’m sure throughout that southwestern area, the minister and member for Marco City would confirm, continue to complain that their hard-earned labour is being stolen from them and while someone seeks just a hand of bananas, but I want you to compare it with another individual’s monthly salary because in fact, that is what it is,” Mr Campbell said during his budget contribution in the House of Assembly yesterday.

“When the farmer plants that banana sucker and waits for months and months and waters it and now there’s bananas and the farmer is counting days before he can reap that banana, but some thief decides ‘I shouldn’t have to work, I shouldn’t have to sweat, Farmer Turnquest, Farmer Kates, Farmer Jones, Farmer Sweeting…. has planted something for me.’ It’s wrong, Mr Speaker.”

He called for a review of the country’s penal code so penalties for such offences can be toughened, later noting that he had been informed that the Minnis administration intends to bring legislation to Parliament to that effect.

He said: “I believe the good minister for agriculture will concur when I say we probably need to revisit the penal code or I’m being told we’re bringing the legislation to revisit the penal code to make it a more serious offence to steal from our farmers.”

Yesterday, House Speaker Halson Moultrie also chimed in on the issue, noting a similar problem is also being experienced in his constituency, the Nassau Village community.

He said he fully supported Mr Campbell’s statements and added that he hopes to see some law reform to help curb widespread theft in the country.

“In the Nassau village constituency, we have a problem where some persons in the constituency feel that they should not respect private property and they jump over your walls, jump over your fence, cut holes in your fence,” Mr Moultrie added.

“We had a backyard farm for the young people of the constituency where youngsters would come forward and learn how to sow and grow… and we have persons who believe that after those seeds have sown, not only would they come in to reap the harvest, but they would root up the trees and carry the entire tree.

“They would destroy the young fruit that are left that they didn’t reap, and I believe that something must be done. It’s only a few persons who are responsible, but I think it’s a national issue that needs to be addressed and discipline needs to be in place, and I support that statement from the member of Southern Shores and I hope to see some reform in the law to address this issue.”

Meanwhile, giving a report on his ministry, Mr Campbell said the social safety net continues to work to assist hurting Bahamians amid the pandemic.

According to the 2021/2022 budget, the Department of Social Services has received $81.5m, about $20m more than last year’s allocation.

“Because of a caring, compassionate Hubert Minnis led government, I have the ability to say that today, I’m going to be presiding over the largest social services budget in the history of the Bahamas,” the minister told the House of Assembly.

“..While we see the home porting, while we see the increased requests for travel visas, while we see the light at the end of the tunnel, we want to make sure in the interim there is that safety network standing in the gap to assure that our Bahamian people and to assure and ensure that no one is left behind.”