KZN farm workers’ plight in spotlight
FARM visits in the province’s Amajuba and Uthukela districts by Parliament’s portfolio committees affirmed a failure to address the dignity and integrity of farm workers.
“To say they are poorly handled or addressed is an understatement; they are still living in appalling conditions,” said Lindelwa Dunjwa, the chairperson of the portfolio committee on employment and labour.
Dunjwa’s committee was in the province at the weekend with the portfolio committee on agriculture, rural development and land reform, which went to Amajuba district while she went to Uthukela.
The joint oversight programme to assess the living conditions of farm workers, farm dwellers and tenants is the implementation of a National Assembly resolution adopted in 2020 for both committees to assess the legislation and explore opportunities for legislative review.
Before the committees visited the farms they were presented with statistical findings from the Department of Employment and Labour’s farm inspections conducted in 2021/ 22 and in the first quarter of the 2022/ 23 financial year in the province.
These revealed employers within the agriculture sector were still found to be in contravention of labour laws, that in 2021/ 22 8% of employers were not paying the National Minimum Wage and not adhering to the sectoral determination such as providing written contracts of employment to workers, issuing of payslips, and keeping an attendance register.
Dunjwa said what was most challenging was that when people were injured on duty, farmers allegedly did not report this to an entity of the Compensation Fund.
“We have to understand that these are vulnerable groups and the challenge is that a farm is private property; even if I go to your house I inspect. In that, we have picked up serious allegations that have been labelled against our officials. We will say allegations for now until we have proof that they are drinking tea with farmers and therefore there’s nothing being done.”
Another issue of concern was that they had found in another province, following an announcement of the committee’s visit, all workers were told to go home. “This was whereas in Parliament our rules allow us ( to undertake) an announced visit so as we move forward with this programme we are picking up and refer people to inspectors. In November we are to table a report of what we have picked up; there are legislations that are suggesting… must be amended, we will have to look into that.”
Chairperson of the portfolio committee on agriculture, rural development and land reform, Inkosi Zwelivelile Mandela said farm owners enjoyed the private property of the farm they owned but labour tenants enjoyed land tenure rights.
He said they had come across a farm worker who had been legally evicted after living on a farm for 42 years. “There was no legal representation on the part of the labour tenants by the department officials who are supposed to give them legal representation.”
He said these were matters they would look into, when improving legislation in favour of farm workers, labour tenants as well as farm dwellers.