Parliament, Friday, 1 July 2022 – The Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and the Portfolio Committee on Employment and Labour today began a joint oversight visit to the North West Province with a stakeholder forum in Klerksdorp. The committees are in the North West to investigate the working and living conditions of farmworkers, farm dwellers and labourers.
The committees heard that some farmers in the province disregard legislation governing farm labour and do not pay the national minimum wage. They heard from the Congress of South African Trade Unions that out of 6 000 workers employed by one farmer, 4 000 are foreign nationals who accept wages below the minimum wage. The Department of Employment and Labour needs to conduct an inspection to ascertain whether the workers are documented foreign nationals.
The committees further heard of the flagrant disregard of women’s rights. Women farmworkers are dismissed for being pregnant and are also denied the right to maternity leave. Many farm workers and labourers are unfairly dismissed and they rarely win their cases when they approach the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. The portfolio committees need to look into this.
The committees further heard that mechanisation is replacing many of the functions performed by farmworkers and labourers in commercial agriculture. Some functions cannot be mechanised, but the wages paid for these tasks have declined over the years. This was cited as the main reason why local job-seekers are reluctant to take up vacancies on the farms, hence farmers employ foreign nationals.
Some of the speakers appealed to the committees to visit their homes to see the living conditions they are subjected to. The committees heard that in some instances as many as seven farmworkers live in a small room, paying as much as R700 per person.
The committees also heard that the Department of Employment and Labour does not conduct regular inspections of the working conditions of farm dwellers and farm workers. There were also allegations that child labour is being used on one farm and the Department of Employment and Labour was asked to intervene.
Delegation leader Inkosi Zwelivelile Mandela said: “When officials do this job, they do it to serve the labourers and farmworkers. Therefore, officials must be available and contactable at all times to serve.”
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE LEADER OF THE DELEGATION OF THE JOINT OVERSIGHT TO THE NORTH WEST PROVINCE, INKOSI ZWELIVELILE MANDELA.
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