Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Honourable Tina Joemat-Pettersson
Honourable ministers
Honourable premiers
Honourable deputy ministers
Members of the provincial legislature
The Executive Mayor,
Congress of the South African Trade Union (COSATU) secretary-general
Distinguished guests
Good morning, goeie more, sanibonani, dumelang, molweni!
Many summits and conferences have been held in the country to take transformation forward in various fields.
This one, focusing on a sector that is amongst the most vulnerable in our society, stands amongst the most significant.
The summit is also important given that in Africa, agriculture is the mainstay of the economy.
In our country, the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors contribute three percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) with still some potential for further growth along the value chain.
This sector is driven by an estimated 7.5 million people as farm owners, farm dwellers and farm workers.
I am pleased that this platform provides an opportunity for farm workers as key agents to raise their views.
It is a voice that must be heard. More than anyone else, farm workers are better positioned to provide first hand information about their circumstances.
Farm workers have endured 97 years of social, political and economic hardships starting with the passing of the Land Act No 27, of 1913.
This period of land dispossession which spanned over 23 years between 1913 and 1936 affected millions of people, depriving them of free access to land and placed them largely under tenancy.
This was immortalised in the historical accounts of Sol Plaatje, who wrote: "Awaking on Friday morning, 20 June 1913, the South African native found himself, not actually a slave, but a pariah in the land of his birth".
The implementation of the Land Act was accompanied by untold human rights violations, which demonstrated to the world that apartheid was really a crime against humanity. Even in the democratic era, the remnants of that culture sadly still remain on some of our farms.
Farm workers bore the brunt of apartheid brutality more than many sectors due to the location of their living areas. Being remote and far, most human rights abuses go largely unnoticed in some of the farms whose owners have not yet come in line with the democratic and human rights ethos of our country.
At its 52nd national conference in Polokwane, the ruling party noted in a resolution that: "Notwithstanding the best intentions of government and parliament to protect the tenure rights of farm workers and farm dwellers through legislative interventions, the evictions, human rights abuses and super exploitation of farm workers and farm dwellers remain blight on the conscience of our society and a serious obstacle to the creation of a vibrant rural economy.
"Critically, weak organisation of farm workers deprives them of a voice and of the ability to take advantage of the rights provided under the Constitution and labour laws".
It noted also that rural development is constrained by the insecurity of tenure among farm dwellers and people living in the former Bantustans.
"Despite the enactment of progressive laws, the realities of abuse, both by farmers and some traditional authorities, continues to undermine security of tenure in many rural communities".
I am quoting from these resolutions because they inform our outlook and approach, and the solutions we will look for in resolving these matters.
It is a fact that working conditions for many farm workers still remain far from ideal. Reports state that long and unpaid working hours are still a norm. Most of the workers do not have any kind of insurance, including Unemployment Insurance Fund
(UIF), which means their future is not secure.
Farm workers do not have the opportunity and means to organise themselves, which means that they have very weak bargaining power.
The status and conditions of women and children on the farms also needs attention. Since this sector is often isolated, it takes long before practices such as child labour are uncovered, which calls for vigilance by government and non-governmental organisations.
While the farm worker and the farm dweller are the most vulnerable member of our community; within this group, women and the aged are worse off.
To escape their difficult living conditions, many farm workers and farm dwellers migrate to urban areas.
Without skills and education, many live in squalor in informal settlements, further increasing the extent of their marginalisation.
In this era of democracy, and armed with a Constitution that enshrines socio-economic rights, we have to pull together and work harder and faster to effect change.
This summit has to enable all of us as stakeholders and sectors, to agree to work faster and harder to bring to an end, 97 years of hardship for farm dwellers and farm workers.
We must agree as farm owners, farm workers, government, labour and others that the Bill of Rights in the Constitution, especially provisions such as the right to human dignity also applies to farm workers.
We must commit to work actively with farm workers to ensure that they enjoy these rights.
Farm workers are also entitled to enjoy the socio-economic rights stipulated in the Constitution like all South Africans. They have a right to basic services, education, health, social security and a host of others.
They have a right to pensions, social grants and all social security measures that the state provides to qualifying citizens.
We will know that we have achieved a lot as a democratic and progressive society, when farm workers enjoy these rights fully.
As government, our action plan involves the implementation of a comprehensive rural development strategy, linked to land and agrarian reform.
The strategy links the improvement of the conditions of farm workers and farm-dwellers with the need to build the potential for rural sustainable livelihoods.
Our vision is that people residing in rural areas must not be denied the basic services enjoyed by those in urban areas.
We have to work to ensure that rural villages have roads, transport, well equipped schools and health centres, proper sanitation systems, water and electricity.
The establishment of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform indicates our seriousness in ensuring an intense focus on rural development.
We are also mainstreaming the focus on rural areas. It must not only be the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform that sees rural areas as its responsibility.
Our economic cluster must ensure that the efforts to create decent work also include implementable strategies for rural areas, so that the enjoyment of these progressive policies does not become the preserve or urban South Africans only.
All departments must be able to demonstrate the tangible progress towards changing the living conditions of people living in rural areas through budget allocations and programmes.
Working together as government, labour, and the commercial agricultural sector we can ensure that farm workers, like all other workers, are able to enjoy worker rights that they are entitled to in terms of the Constitution of the land and relevant legislation.
Education and training has to extend beyond farm life to incorporate non-farming rural income generating activities and development of agro-businesses, which include agro-processing, storage and packaging.
We feel it is important that this forum should also strive to realise the resolutions of the National Land Summit of 2005, which emphasised security of tenure and provision of houses for the farm workers, and protection against wanton evictions.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We will not achieve much working alone. We acknowledge the role of farmers, farming sector organisations and individuals who are working to improve the conditions of farm workers.
The collaboration of agriculture unions, especially individual farmers and other organisations is critical.
We had a very fruitful meeting with Agriculture South Africa (Agri-SA) recently and agreed that we must work together to strengthen the sector.
We intend to meet again soon as there is a lot of work to do, to improve service delivery not only in the agricultural sector but also within rural development and land reform areas.
Issues relating to the conditions of farm workers no doubt form a critical part of this agenda. We will have a session with the labour movement as well soon, where such issues will no doubt be on the agenda.
Compatriots,
The issues relating to improving the conditions of farm workers apply within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region as well.
We will therefore continue to engage with our regional counterparts to share information on best practices and strategies to improve the situation in our farms.
As government, we will also continue to intensify our lobby internationally, against the food safety standards, tariff and subsidy measures imposed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. These measures stunt growth in our emerging economies.
An improved international trade regime will improve our bargaining power globally, and the spin-offs to the agricultural sector will also filter down to farm workers as well.
This will not only be a significant step to improve the conditions for farm workers, but will also take us important steps in our vision of the Integrated Food Security Strategy, whose goal is to eradicate hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity by 2015.
Compatriots, esteemed delegates,
We must at this summit, commit ourselves as government, labour, commercial and emerging agriculture and all sectors, that we will not rest, for as long as farm workers and farm dwellers still:
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do not receive respect and proper treatment from some of the farmers
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lack proper housing with proper ablution facilities
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have difficulty in accessing basic amenities
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face long distances to access government basic services
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struggle to gain access to education for their children and access to healthcare, and
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generally do not feel safe
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do not feel they are an integral part of South African society.
I doubt that anyone can fault the vision that is spelled out in the historical document the Freedom Charter, which states that:
"The land shall be shared among those who work it!
Restrictions of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land re-divided amongst those who work it to banish famine and land hunger;
The state shall help those who work the land with implements, seed, tractors and dams to save the soil and assist the tillers;"
With that message, I wish all delegates successful deliberations.
I thank you
Source: The Presidency
