The three-day oversight program reviewing the living circumstances of farm residents and farm workers in Limpopo was concluded by the Portfolio Committees on Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and Employment and Labour.
A committee group met with the Mathye family at Purekrans Farm 271 KR in Waterberg District. Mr Shadrack Mathye began working at Purekrans Farm when he was ten years old, following in the footsteps of his parents.
After receiving an eviction notice from the farm’s owner, he filed a labor tenant claim with the Department of Agriculture in 2001.
After receiving the claim in 2021, the department began reviewing it by providing the owner with a Section 17 notice in May 2022.
The farmer was notified of the department’s intention to buy 343 hectares of the farm on behalf of the Mathye family in the notice. The government is expecting a response from the owner by the end of June, failing which it will file a lawsuit against the owner.
Given that the family has been waiting for 21 years, committee Chairperson and delegation leader Inkosi Zwelivelile Mandela asked the department when it plans to finalize the claim.
The department reacted by stating that it has set a goal of processing 43 applications in Limpopo this financial year and has set aside R217 million to complete the remaining 293 claims.
The delegation requested a three-month update on the claim from the government to guarantee that Mr Mathye’s ambition of owning this property in his lifetime comes true.
The party also paid a visit to Krispy Farm in Mookopong, where workers are paid R4 900 per month, slightly more than the legal minimum wage.
210 South Africans and 35 foreign nationals work on the farm, which is being phased out. In the future, the farm will only employ South Africans. The farm’s staff are periodically sent on plant production and packhouse training courses, according to the committee.
The delegation was particularly thrilled to learn that the farm owners have hired advisors to help them design a shareholder system in which employees who have worked on the farm for more than seven years are eligible to get shares.
The delegation also addressed a public meeting in Mookopong Local Municipality, where it heard horrifying accounts about farm labourers being denied access to safe drinking water. Instead, they are compelled to drink from polluted rivers, where animals also drink.
Farm workers, like those in other districts, complained of being barred from visiting family cemetery sites and hence unable to carry out their traditional traditions. They requested assistance from the delegation.
They also expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of adequate property on which to construct dwellings, as well as the lack of running water, sanitation, and power. They also complained about being evicted from farms without their consent.
They informed the delegation that certain farmers in the Waterberg area pay them R50 per day for farm work. They also don’t have access to the Unemployment Insurance Fund, a pension, or any other benefits.
Furthermore, several farmers in the district solely use immigrant workers.
All of the people’s contributions are being documented, and they will be given to the Departments of Agriculture, Rural Development, and Land Reform, as well as the Department of Employment and Labour, according to Inkosi Mandela.
After that, the departments must report to the committee on their answers to the submissions.
If the farmworkers do not hear back, they must contact the committee again.
The Parliament of the Republic of South Africa is distributed by the APO Group on behalf of the Republic of South Africa.