Cape Town – Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on all parties involved in the farming sector to work towards finding solutions to resolve a “crisis” that faces farmers and farm workers.
The Deputy President said this when he chaired a community meeting in Paarl in the Western Cape aimed at addressing, amongst other issues, deteriorating living and working conditions of farmworkers in the Western Cape.
The meeting on Saturday also discussed the increasing number of evictions of farmworkers.
“This is a very important forum for all the stakeholders of the farming sector in the Western Cape.
“In many ways this also has an impact on what happens to the farming sector nationally.
“We need to reposition the farming sector on a growth path where all stakeholders will benefit. We don’t want to focus on the interests of one stakeholder,” he said.
The Deputy President said this amid concerns of mushrooming illegal evictions of farm workers in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Mpumalanga areas as tensions between farmers and farm workers continue.
A task-team was recently set up by the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Gugile Nkwinti to go on a fact-finding mission to ascertain where the evictions were taking place and to assess the number of illegal evictions in these areas.
A hot-line - 0800 007 095 - was also established within the department for evicted farm workers to get legal representation in dealing with illegal evictions.
The reported evictions also led to unions representing farm workers threatening to go on a strike.
Government ploughs a way forward
On top of illegal evictions, farmers had concerns of their challenge to access export markets abroad.
After making opening remarks, the Deputy President met with labour, farmers, government officials and farm workers behind closed doors to discuss the progress that government has made to tackle the challenges facing the farming sector in the region.
He was joined by Agriculture, forestry and Fisheries Minister Senzeni Zokwana, Cooperative Governance Minister Pravin Gordhan, Human Settlements Deputy Minister Zou Kota-Fredericks, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant and Justice Minister Michael Masutha.
After the closed meeting, the Deputy President interacted with farmworkers who live in farms.
Some of them asked that government facilitates a process where a moratorium must be put on all illegal evictions.
The Deputy President agreed, and said the earlier session with farm owners agreed to the call.
“We call upon all farmers who have plans to evict their workers to put a stop to it right now while we try to find solutions.
“We must uphold human rights of farm workers who live in farms,” he said.
He said going forward, farm owners, government and farm workers should look at the wounds that were caused by the dispossessions and oppression that has occurred in farms ever since the 1913 Land Act was passed, allow a room for healing and then confront all the challenges that are still facing the sector constructively.
The Deputy President also said it was unacceptable that only one percent of all agricultural land in the Western Cape was owned by black people, and said change was required and discussions should accommodate the transformation of the agricultural sector. – SAnews.gov.za
