Zara Nicholson
“IT’S hell living on a farm,” Johanna Flippies says as she breaks down and tells how her husband was paid R200 for a week’s work on a Rawsonville farm.
Flippies, 52, said her family had been evicted from three farms in the past 10 years because her husband was a union shop steward.
“We didn’t make any trouble on the farms, but when the farmers found out he belonged to a union, they would tell each other my husband is a communist and he must get out.
“Every time they would say we have two months to get out and by the third month, our stuff is on the streets.
“For 10 years we have been moving all over, from Wellington to Kuils River, and now we’ve been back in Rawsonville.”
Flippies was talking just after the South African branch of the international organisation Human Rights Watch released a 96-page report, “Ripe with abuse: Human rights conditions in South Africa’s fruit and wine industries”.
The report records findings similar to those given in a report by the Black Association of the Agriculture Sector (Bawsi), released on Friday, on Western Cape farmworkers’ working and living conditions.
The reports highlight issues such as housing, occupational health and safety dangers, and lack of freedom of association with unions.
The reports also describe insecure tenure rights and threats of eviction for residents on farms.
Being evicted from farms is a regular experience for Flippies and many other workers, but added to this is the hardship of surviving on R200 a week.
“My husband (Jan) came home with R200 in an envelope on Friday night, that’s for electricity, a loan we made for food,” she paused and then broke down.
“By Saturday morning there was nothing left, there wasn’t even enough to buy a packet of rice. It’s hell to live on a farm and that’s how it is for all farmworkers.”
The findings have been disputed by some government departments and organisations, which say a lot is being done to alleviate the plight of farmworkers and ensure farmers comply with the laws.
Flippies said: “If the government was doing a lot, we wouldn’t be living like this. The laws are not being implemented on farms at all.”
In its report, Human Rights Watch said that although farmworkers contributed billions of rand to the economy and tourism, they earned the lowest wages.
Bawsi president Nosey Pieterse said Western Cape farmworkers lived in “horrific conditions and are robbed of their dignity”, with some cases where eight people were accommodated in a single container.
These are some of the findings in the reports:
l Housing that is unfit for habitation. One farmworker said they lived in what used to be a pigsty, with no electricity or water.
l Exposure to pesticides without proper safety equipment being provided and the absence of warning signs in dangerous areas.
l Poor wages. Workers are paid between R200 and R400 a week. The legal minimum wage is R1 375.94 a month.
l No overtime pay and no medical aid or provident fund benefits.
l The use of child labour.
l The lack of medical assistance. One report told of a woman worker having to hitch-hike to a hospital as the employer would not help her.
l Intimidation when workers want to join unions.
l Illegal evictions.
Pieterse said the conditions in which farmworkers lived were a “breeding ground for social ills”.
Many workers said their living conditions were dire as they lived in structures that were continually in need of repair, and did not have electricity or running water.
At one farm in Malmesbury that the Cape Times visited on Monday, workers were living in containers that measured about two metres by three metres.
As many as eight people shared one of these containers, used as a kitchen and bedroom. One container had three sets of double bunks on which eight people slept.
Only one step away from the beds were the fridge, cupboards and a two-plate stove.
Pieterse said these containers were smaller than the single cells at Pollsmoor Prison.
Child labour was also reported on two farms in the Swartland area. Pieterse said that on one farm, it was “compulsory” for children to work on farms after school and during holidays.
“These farms are a breeding ground for social ills and people are being robbed of their dignity as they are verbally and physically abused in front of their peers,” said Pieterse.
“We believe the Departments of Labour, Social Development, Agriculture, Land Affairs and Rural Development must get involved and address these issues.”
Bawsi has written to the portfolio committees asking for an opportunity to present its report and to work with the government to improve workers’ living conditions.
Daniel Bekele, African director for Human Rights Watch, said: “The government, and the industries and farmers themselves, need to do a lot more to protect people who live and work on farms.”
Bekele said that while there were laws guaranteeing wages, benefits and safe working conditions, many of the laws were not monitored and enforced on farms.
zara.nicholson@inl.co.za