A delegation from the committees on Employment and Labour and Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform conducted joint oversight visits to farms in the Gauteng Province. The delegation leader, Ms Lindelwa Dunjwa, promised that the parliamentary delegation was on oversight not only “to hear the cries of farmworkers, but to act on them”.
In an address at a stakeholder’s engagement at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, on 1 July 2022 at the beginning of the oversight visit, Ms Dunjwa pointed out that Parliament considered farmworkers to be among the country’s most oppressed and vulnerable. To right this wrong, “we must be bold enough to recognise the inefficiencies of policies and pieces of legislation where they exist without ambiguity,” she said.
Labour unions and non-government organisations (NGOs) then briefed the joint delegation on farm workers’ experiences in the province, saying that farm owners show a blatant disregard for the law. “Unlike other labour sectors, farm workers do not know how many hours they work. They are not bound to prescribed time as determined by the labour laws. They work from dawn to dusk,” the delegation was told by the Provincial Secretary of Cosatu in Gauteng, Ms Moepeng Modikwe.
Furthermore, farm workers are often denied sick leave or are unable to consult a doctor when they fall ill, Ms Modikwe said. They can only do so at the discretion of the farm owner. They are also often unaware of their rights, because they are not unionised.
A representative from the Agricultural Food and Allied Democratic Workers Union, Mr Lucas Mbambo, noted that undocumented migrants are often employed as farm workers rather than locals. This practice on the part of farm owners subverts workers’ labour and legal rights and is rife in the sector. This is because farmers believe they can get away with it, as the departments of Employment and Labour, Agriculture and Home Affairs are not applying the law as it should be.
Farm workers are also being poorly treated by the programmes government sets up to help them, said the Secretary-General of the Workers, Occupiers, Tenants and Dwellers Forum, Mr Vusi Mabena. To support his claim, he pointed out that bona fide tenants are often excluded from land restitution programmes, even when their families have lived on the land for generations. They are excluded in favour of commercial entities and are “reduced to spectators of the rich exploits of their forefathers’ inheritance due to lack of transparency and openness in the manner that the restitution programme is executed”.
Farm workers also often face eviction from the land their forefathers lived on and are robbed of the cultural right to be buried beside them. This often creates animosity between farm dwellers and those to which these farms are leased, Mr Mabena said.
Reflecting on how the economic rights of farm workers are subverted, Local Economic Development Officer for the Rand West City Local Municipality Officer Ms Kelebogile Tlharipe attested that farm labourers are considered a cheap commodity and their wages are not aligned to the national minimum wage. “They have no pay slips, no registered working hours nor sick leave, are not registered for the Unemployment Insurance Fund and their employers don’t contribute to their pension fund.” They have no economic cushion to rely on when they grow old and are unable to sell their labour, she indicated.
At the end of these presentations, Ms Dunjwa suggested that a comprehensive programme is needed to educate farmers on their labour relations responsibilities and the socio-economic consequences thereof. There is also a pressing need for a coordinated approach from all major stakeholders in the sector “to utilise the available instruments to address farm workers’ concerns and to lift these communities out of their misery”.
But, she emphasised, “If, at the end, we find any weaknesses in the existing policies and pieces of legislation that govern labour relations, we will address them to ensure that the working and living conditions of farm workers and dwellers stand the test of our human rights culture.” Because, she continued, “We are all equal before the law, irrespective of the labour market that one finds him/herself in,” Ms Dunjwa said.
Abel Mputing
4 July 2022
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