The struggle of women on farms is real, harsh and vicious and it is very tempting in these times of global crisis and turmoil to speak words of lament and fulmination. Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, the chairperson of South Africa’s portfolio committee on agriculture, land reform and rural development, says it’s even more tempting to do so in SA when so much is going wrong.
However, to do so in the case of women on farms is to say too little about a struggle that is as old as the colonial project, its worst expression suffered under apartheid and unfortunately despite nearly three decades of democracy, continues to persist in ways that contradicts everything that the Freedom Charter, the Bill of Rights and the celebrated Constitution stands for.
Allow me to make some preliminary remarks before I engage the findings of the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture Land Reform and Rural Development oversight visits in the Western Cape of July 2022.
The struggle of women is a space in which we advocate and unapologetically advance contestation for the rights and space of women on farms as their historic and constitutional right.
Collective actions required
However, it can only be addressed through our collective actions and our refusal to be cowed down, sidelined or rendered as a stepchild of the struggle.
If President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Sona 2022 utterances about the potential of the agriculture sector hold any truth, it can never realise that ambition without putting the struggles of women on farms centre stage, especially in respect of land rights, redistribution and ownership.
To do anything less than take our destiny into our hands is to render ourselves complicit and betray the struggle of the calloused and furrowed hands of our sisters, mothers, aunts and grandmothers who have for centuries been toiling on the land from dawn to dusk without substantial and material improvements in their lives and livelihoods.
This is not to deny the groundbreaking victories we have achieved in progressive legislation, innovative agricultural extension programmes, land and tenure reform, child and labour rights and a minimum wage for farmworkers.
Mind the gap
To understand the gravity of the situation allow me to refer to statistics from the PLAAS Land Report and StatsSA respectively that inform us that “92% of land are owned by South Africans. Of this, men own more than 26 million hectares while women only own about 4.8 million hectares”.
Furthermore, the 2020 report by StatsSA suggests that there are just more than 8 000 women landowners who farm for themselves. This, is compared to more than 31 000 male farmers who also own land.
Our oversight reveals the realities behind the statistics and how this is further aggrivated by gender struggles and malpractices, including lack of access to training and skills development, barriers to accessing finance, management experience, logistics and the challenges of marketing, accessing markets and the pangs of redistribution and land ownership.
To say that the odds are stacked against women on farms is an understatement. We can however never rest or be discouraged in the face of such obstacles and challenges.
Hearing first hand the experiences of women on farms is a harrowing and painful story which must be heard and urgently addressed as it is central to restorative justice in South Africa, and moreover, impacts our future, the food security of the nation and the sword of democles (demoklees) of rampant poverty, hunger and suffering that already haunts us.
The agricultural economy is a microcosm of our national reality replete with immense potential and some of the worst vestiges of our horrid past.
Infringements of women on farms
Our oversight found some of the worse infringements on the rights of women on farms. The oversight visit was a joint effort of the department of labour and employment as well as the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development conducted in July 2022.
Some of the major complaints related to the following:
- Outdated legislation;
- Lack of capacity of government and especially municipalities;
- Issues of stakeholder engagement;
- Lack of awareness of government information and interventions;
- Perceived lack of access to agriculture sector public institutions or sympathy with farmworker issues;
- Lack of access to basic amenities such as water and electricity;
- Security of tenure and the scourge of illegal evictions;
- Violations of conditions of employment, unfair dismissals and workplace injuries; and
- A recurring theme was retrenchments after long service history with some workers having worked for 20 to 40 years and one old lady had been working and living on a farm for close to 50 years.
Evictions, lack of basic services common
At another farm we met a woman, Ida Plaatjies, who has been residing in a house under different owners over the years but has not had water and electricity for the past 29 years.
On the same farm, a woman Sophia Julies, who had been working and residing there since 1975, became ill and could no longer work on the farm. She was subsequently locked out and evicted from her house.
On another farm, we were told of women and their families who had been living on the farm for more than a decade. The new owner of the farm ill-treats and beats them and extracts rent per individual in the household so each child must pay. These people have to get their drinking water from a reservoir that gets contaminated during the spraying of pesticides.
Basic human rights violations
We heard of multiple cases of basic human rights violations and we were shocked by the instances we heard of collusion between farmers and the South African police services who accepted bribes to illegally evict families.
Whilst there are many South Africans in the agriculture sector who have embraced the imperative of transforming the experience of people on farms and women as a subset, there is a recalcitrant element among farmers and farm owners who act contrary to the law, contrary to their own best interests and the interests of farmworkers and farm-dwellers.
The department is dealing with these cases and some matters have been referred to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and other relevant authorities.
Greater engagement and stakeholder participation required
We must also ensure that there is a greater responsiveness from government to the issues confronting farmworkers, farm dwellers and women on farms more specifically.
Too often we hear that promises were made, but either nothing was heard after that, or that complainants came up against technical obstacles such as documentation, daunting processes or programmes that were halted without stakeholders knowing about it. This is inexcusable in a democracy that is founded on accountability and a participative approach.
I am on record as stating that the Land Restitution Act that only covers claims post 19 June 1913 must be reconsidered as it tantamount to a denial of the colonisation project that robbed people of the land long before the act came into effect.
This is of relevance for all who lost land pre-1913 including the claims and rights of first nation claimants and traditional leaders who engaged in wars against colonial occupation and whose land was stolen since the arrival of the first settlers.
Land reform urgency
I also want to make reference to the Presidential Special Advisory Panel on Agriculture and Land Reform of 2019 and remind you of the chilling words of the [former] chairperson Dr Vuyokazi Mahlati: “Mr President, the message the Report carries is loud and clear: the urgency and Constitutional imperative of land reform in South Africa can neither be taken lightly nor postponed. The people have voiced their impatience and the inequalities are threatening peace and stability in our country.”
The painful memories of the farmworker uprising of 2012 in De Doorns and the failed insurrection of July 2021 remind us that these words are not far-fetched.
The shocking accounts of our oversight visit was consistent with and echoed in a briefing to the Portfolio Committees of Agriculture Land Reform and Rural Development and Labour and Employment on 2 September 2022.
The SAHRC further stated: “Widespread non-compliance with the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (ESTA), a disturbing lack of knowledge of ESTA by all role players, a lack of compliance with the legislative provisions of ESTA in some court proceedings (resulting in farmworkers being evicted in terms of comment law), high numbers of evictions associated with the change of farm ownership and a failure of the State to adequately train its officials to implement the legislation has resulted in a high rate of illegal evictions.”
Driving the agenda forward
I believe that we have a great champion for women on farms in Minister Thoko Didiza. However, greater engagement and stakeholder participation is required to drive this agenda forward.
In her report to parliament she indicated that “of the 700 000 hectares of land released by the state, 53 000 hectares, which equates to 78 farms, was released to 217 women beneficiaries.” We must ensure that [women] engage her on her promise “to continue growing these numbers because women remain the bedrock of strengthening food systems at local level.”
In his Women’s Day address in 1996, former President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the founding father of our democracy reminded us that “you have assembled to affirm the wisdom and farsightedness of those who declared: ‘Wathint’ abafazi, wathint’ imbokodo; uzokufa!'”
It is now our collective responsibility to advance the rights of women on farms in this spirit without fear or favour.
- Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, the chairperson of South Africa’s portfolio committee on agriculture, land reform and rural development. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Food For Mzansi.
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