Women farmworkers demand land

Women farmworkers and dwellers braved the early winter rains in Cape Town as they protested outside parliament, calling for the redistribution of land. Led by the Women on Farms Project, the protesters demanded an inter-ministerial meeting between the departments of Land and Rural Development, Public Works and Infra-structure, and Agriculture to discuss “the intersectional issues of land redistribution, evictions, food insecurity, spatial planning and inclusive infrastructure development.”

Speaking to Elitsha, Collete Solomon, the director of Women on Farms Project, said that land ownership remains unjust. “We are a few days away from Freedom Day, and women are saying that there is still unequal land distribution in South Africa. 72% of land is still in the hands of white, mainly male farmers, whereas farmworkers, who have been working for generations on the farm, are still landless. … Freedom without access to land is meaningless,” she said.

An inter-ministerial meeting would, according to Solomon, force a coherent strategy for land redistribution. The protesters also want the government to provide statistics on section 4 of the Extension of the Security of Tenure Act, which allows for the state to acquire land for distribution. “We know that we have an expropriation act, which then makes it a mandate of government to expropriate land where necessary in the public interest. So we’re also asking that the expropriation act be tested, tried and tested and let us acquire land for redistribution,” Solomon said.

The protesters say that life in an informal settlement is undignified and unsafe, and should be sufficient reason to expropriate land for housing.

Women farmworkers want land

Women want land for housing and tenure security, since many women on farms face a constant threat of eviction, no matter the many years they worked and lived on the farm. But, Solomon explained, women also don’t just want off-site land, or land in a township. “They want access to productive land where they can also produce for themselves and feed their families, not be dependent on the farmer for seasonal work,” she said.

Janine Petersen, a seasonal worker, said that she needs land to sustain herself and her family during the off-season. “If they can give me land, it will benefit me a lot because then I can build myself a big vegetable garden, and I can feed my family from that vegetable garden, because now, in the off-season, there’s no money. Our children are suffering, especially our two school-going children. They get their portion of food from school, but when they come home, there is nothing for them,” said the mother of four.

“A piece of land will definitely benefit us as farm workers because you can grow your own veggies,” said Nicolene McGee who has been a seasonal worker for 15 years. “Most of the people work their lifetime on the farm. At the end of the day, they must go from that farm, get evicted with nowhere to go.”

Women on farms say that the government must buy land for housing for farmworkers.

Farmworkers facing eviction

73-year-old Corina Kana worked for her employer for 20 years and is currently facing eviction after a new farmer took over the farm in Simonduim near Paarl. “We are 52 families staying on the farm We just want the land which is less than 2 hectares,” she said.

Roos van Niekerk’s family from Paarl is also facing eviction after a new owner took over the farm. “I worked on the farm since the age of 12. My parents left and returned. When I got married and started a family, we rented on the farm. My husband did the maintenance and I worked in the kitchen. The new owner came and did not want to use my husband’s services or mine. All he wanted was the house, he said, for the workers on the farm,” she said.

The acting chief director at the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development, Nyameko Mgoqi accepted the memorandum and promised that the government would respond.