About 150 farmworkers marched to parliament in Cape Town last Thursday, calling on public works minister Dean Macpherson to release public land for housing and for redistribution to farmworkers.
They chanted “resistance everywhere, all the time” and carried placards reading, “We want land for housing” and “We want justice” as they walked through Hanover Street.
The march followed the three-day National Farm Worker Platform, hosted by the Women on Farms Project (WFP). About 15 farm worker organisations from across South Africa participated, including the Casual Workers Advice Office, the Rural Women’s Assembly, and unions representing farm workers such as the Commercial Stevedoring Agricultural and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU) and Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU).
The platform gave farmworkers an opportunity to raise concerns and engage with officials from government departments. Representatives from the departments of employment and labour as well as land reform and rural development also attended.
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Rising evictions drive demand for secure land tenure
The event ended with Thursday’s march, where the organisations called for an urgent meeting with Macpherson and for public land to be redistributed to “farmworkers and farm dwellers who have often lived and worked on the land for generations”.
Farmworkers want public land released for women small-scale farmers and to be used to house farmworkers. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
In their memorandum, the groups said: “Limited access to land remains a major contributing factor to the inhumane conditions experienced by many families living and working in farming communities”.
Carmen Louw, WFP co-director, said the organisation had seen an increase in evictions in the Stellenbosch area. She said WFP wants people who work and live on farms to have access to housing and land to grow food for their families.
Generational labour leaves families without homes
Engela van Schalkwyk, who lives on a farm in De Doorns, said her mother lived and worked on a farm for nearly 60 years. When she retired, she had to leave the farm and the home she had lived in her whole life.
“The farmers are getting richer … but our farmworkers own nothing. We want decent houses,” she said.
Van Schalkwyk said secure land tenure would make a “huge difference” in her mother’s life. Land tenure gives people legally recognised rights to live on and use the land they occupy, without the risk of being evicted.
Public works did not send a representative to receive the group’s memorandum or respond to GroundUp’s questions by the time of publication.
- This story was published by GroundUp.
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