'False image' created on farms
2003-09-01 18:20
Johannesburg - The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is to release the findings of a two-year long investigation into human rights conditions on farms on Tuesday.
The SAHRC on Monday said the aim of the inquiry was to determine, in a systematic manner, the nature and causes of human rights violations in farming communities.
It would also report on what could and should be done to deal with such violations in order to ensure that the rights of farm workers were best protected and promoted.
The release of the report comes a month and a half after the commission found the political slogan, "Kill the farmer, kill the Boer," constituted hate speech.
The Freedom Front, who lodged that complaint, argued that the slogan encouraged the killing of farmers.
The SAHRC's report was expected to include evidence gathered countrywide during a series of public hearings.
A hearing in Pretoria in December last year heard from SA National Defence Force officials that security firm employees had in some cases posed as army commandos and abused farm workers.
Even though the incidents were isolated, they created negative public perceptions about the army, Colonel Barry Schoeman, then a senior staff officer at the SANDF's Joint Operations Division, said.
Department of Home Affairs director Eugene Kritzinger told the same hearing that the exploitation of immigrants was rife on farms.
"Abuse in the form of poor working conditions, long working hours and low wages has been reported a lot on farms," he said.
The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) told the SAHRC labour inspections on farms were often difficult to carry out as many farmers denied government officials access to their properties under the Property Rights Act.
Many farmers used that law's interpretation of private property and trespass to refuse labour inspectors and trade union officials free access.
In November a labour department official told a hearing in Johannesburg that he did not have enough inspectors to effectively police the implementation of labour legislation on farm.
Kenny Fick, the chief executive officer of the labour department in Gauteng South, told the commission that the department had only 200 inspectors to police not only farms, but also businesses and domestic workers in the province.
"We worked out that if we wanted to visit every place once, it would take us three years to get through every business and farm in our area," he said.
"And then we haven't even responded to complaints and followed up on them."
Fick said a false image of good relations between farmers and their workers were being created. He said the department often found that they were only allowed to speak to one worker on a farm, more often than not a foreman, while other workers "disappeared" if labour inspectors tried to approach them.
He acknowledged, however, that these experiences might create a false image of what was happening on farms because the department only heard about the "bad stories".
"There may be a lot of good stories out there where farm workers are paid well and have decent living conditions that we never hear about due to the nature of our work."
He said a widespread problem was that farmers did not adhere to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA).
The department had not yet successfully prosecuted a farmer for contravening the BCEA, often for a lack of evidence.
It was difficult to convince farm workers to testify against farmers because they feared that they would lose not only their jobs, but their whole livelihoods.
In July, a hearing in Limpopo province heard that some farmers there dismissed farm workers when they got pregnant.
An NGO that represents farm dwellers, the Nkuzi Development Association, said farm dwellers' children were subjected to racism and inferior education.
Association spokesperson Michael Nefule said the children were expected to walk about 60km a day to and from school.
Nefule said most schools on farms did not offer classes beyond grade seven.
- SAPA