700 000 evicted from SA farms
2005-08-30 12:37
Cape Town - Some 700 000 South Africans have been evicted from the country's farms in the first decade of democracy, members of parliament serving on parliament's agriculture and land affairs portfolio committee were told on Tuesday.
Nkuzi Development Association's Marc Wegerif and Social Surveys Africa representative Bev Russell-Rice told MPs in a submission to the committee that more and more black families were losing their homes on white farms.
They landed up in urban townships where their already low standards of living had fallen further.
They noted that in the 10 years before democracy, some 940 000 South Africans had been evicted from farms.
Almost half of those evicted were children.
Initial research was carried out in 300 communities across the country.
This was reduced to 7 759 households in 75 communities and the research was completed by 2004.
Finally the sample was reduced to 355 households.