Cape Town - Around 80 farmworkers from across the Western Cape protested at the gates of Parliament on Friday over the government’s delay in taking decisive steps to ban harmful pesticides, as well as opposing the appointment of the DA’s John Steenhuisen as Minister of Agriculture.
From De Doorns, Robertson, Rawsonville, Paarl, Riebeek-Kasteel, Simondium and Stellenbosch, among others, those farmworkers and farm-dwellers present were supported by a number of NGO organisations and trade unions.
The protest was organised to show their “utter dismay” at Steenhuisen's appointment and to reject the draft regulations for hazardous chemical agents published on April 5 under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993.
The Department of Employment and Labour’s draft regulations were rejected, with the coalitions instead calling for Minister Nomakhosazana Meth and the department to host open and transparent public consultations with farmworkers and other impacted or adjacent communities.
Regulation, even if properly enforced, was not enough to adequately address the long-term health and environmental impacts of chemicals and pesticide exposure, they argued.
The organisations called for all pesticides to be banned, but at the barest minimum, demanded that the Minister of Agriculture ban, with immediate effect, highly hazardous pesticides already banned in the EU.
Former farmworker Sarah Peters, 60, from Bien Donne, Groot Drakenstein, was a farmworker for 21 years. “We’re here because of the pesticides that the farmers use on the farms, between the people’s homes, and many of us workers don’t have protective clothing. We want rights on the farms, for our own safety. Farmworkers must wear protective clothing and our children should also be protected from the poison. This is why many people get asthma, have heart attacks, they get sores on their skin. And this is why many people die, because of the poison.”
Farmworker Mena Stuurman, 41, from Rawsonville said many unfair practices continued, particularly impacting women farmworkers. An example of this was inadequate or non-existent ablution facilities where women couldn’t relieve themselves properly. A lack of washing facilities also meant that farmworkers exposed to harmful pesticides were unable to wash and could also expose their family members to the chemicals.
Women on Farms Project director Colette Solomon said a protest by the DA on May 5 exposed the party’s position as “anti-worker” for its stance on the national minimum wage.
“Not only is it a broadly anti-worker perspective, but an anti-farmworker perspective, given the seasonality and precarity of especially women farmworkers labouring on farms,” Solomon said.
The Surplus People Project said they rejected the proposed provisions in the draft regulations as they devalued farmworkers and suppressed their voices in the public participation process.
SPP programme manager Vainola Makan said: “We are continuing with the apartheid system, where they do not have a voice, and our Constitution is saying that it’s now time for us to amplify the voice of the poor. They don’t want to give more land to small-scale farmers because they want to keep the land, and this is keeping the apartheid system alive.”
Steenhuisen said he noted the concerns raised and that he’d have an open-door policy. “Given that I was only sworn in as Minister of Agriculture on Wednesday, it is unfortunate and premature for any group to protest against my appointment as Minister of Agriculture without first giving me a chance to indicate what lies ahead.
“There is no need to protest, they are most welcome to meet me directly and raise their issues and concerns,” he added.