GROUNDUP: ‘We didn’t ask for much’ – seven years after the De Doorns uprising By Barbara Maregele for GroundUp
I will never forget the day a lady and her child came to my door to ask for R10 for bread. That was the last money I had as well. We couldn’t let people go hungry,” said Fortuin.left at least two people dead and several people seriously injured during the farmworkers’ strike across the Western Cape.The police came in the way they did because they could see we were determined that we didn’t want to stop until we got what we wanted,” said Fortuin.
The demand for a moratorium on farm evictions has not been successful. In November 2014, Cyril Ramaphosa, then Deputy President, was quoted byas promising a moratorium on farm evictions after he and a delegation of senior ministers met agricultural and farm labour representatives in Paarl. Commenting on renewed calls for a moratorium on evictions, De Villiers said the Presidential Advisory Panel had acknowledged that it would be unconstitutional to institute a moratorium. “There are no reliable statistics available on evictions. A distinction must be drawn between legal and illegal evictions. Illegal evictions should be reported to the relevant authorities. Agri SA is under no obligation and in no position to keep statistics on evictions,” he said.
Farmworkers had also asked that a provident fund be set up as well as a dedicated desk at the labour department to track seasonal workers. But, said Solomons, there has been a backlash from farmers. She claimed there have been increasing farm evictions; more seasonality of labour, especially for women; farmers preventing trade unions from organising on their farms; increased mechanisation; a range of ongoing labour rights violations on farms; more farmers taking some of their land out of production to build luxury residential and tourist developments, resulting in further evictions and job losses on farms.
Else Lambrecht, a seasonal worker in De Doorns, said: “When the wages went up, farmers took fewer people … Most people are now seasonal workers. I am supposed to be working already from October but I’m still waiting at home for the call.”
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