South Africa's land reform programme has been ambitious in targets and has been slow to deliver tangible benefits. Securing the tenure rights of farm dwellers has been an important step at the level of legislation but has not met its objectives of transforming the relations between land owners and occupiers, which remains essentially paternalistic and entrenched in dependency.
Neither has it succeeded in improving the standard of life nor securing the tenancy on farms for farm dwellers, as illegal evictions continue unabated and levels of poverty are at their highest. The agriculture sector is one of the most vital sectors in the whole of SADC region in terms of food production and export earnings. Despite the size and strategic position of the farm workers as a workforce, they experience the poorest working conditions as well as social and political exclusion.
Most farm dwellers have very little knowledge on their rights and have insufficient support from the state to exercise these rights. Extensive support mechanisms are needed for farm dwellers to realize these rights. The principal behind our Farm Dwellers Programme is to ensure tenure security for farm occupiers, including land ownership and socio-economic rights. To this end Nkuzi will assist farm occupiers to access their existing rights while lobbying to increase those rights and fill the gaps that may exist in current legislation.
One of the impediments for farm dwellers to realize their rights is their inability to secure legal representation when their rights are being violated. Their poverty prevents them paying for legal services, but must be found to ensure that poverty does not prevent them from accessing justice.
Programme objectives are:
- Dissemination of information to occupiers and owners on their rights and responsibilities under the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (ESTA).
- Establishment of a rural support network.
- Facilitation of both short and long term settlement solutions as a means of securing tenure and brokering development resources.
- Capacitate farm occupiers to engage with relevant role players on issues that affect them.
- Advocate for a Human Rights Commission office to be established in the Limpopo province.
- Lobby for an enabling and supportive environment for farm occupiers.
The process of addressing both farm workers rights and human rights violations within the farming communities require financial, technical and human capacity. The needs to be an integrated, co-ordinated, inter-departmental, inter-sectoral cooperative approach, with all the major role players committed to changing the Status Quo.
