A decade after the end of apartheid, ”the right of access to adequate housing remains unrealised for many farm dwellers”. This is one of the conclusions of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) report into human rights violations in farming communities.
The report attributes this failure to the Department of Housing, which, it says, ”is clearly not grappling with the issues of farming communities”. It also highlights the lack of coordination between the Department of Housing, which should be providing housing, and the Department of Land Affairs, which should be providing land.
The Department of Housing, said the report, was ”not resolving the issue of provision of housing to individuals residing on private land”. The department told the inquiry that it was the Department of Land Affairs’s responsbility to provide the necessary land.
”The government has done little to provide housing for farm dwellers. Reasons attributed for this by various role players during the inquiry was a lack of coordination between government departments,” said the report.
The report criticised land affairs for its failure to fast-track land redistribution. ”The aim of government was to have 15-million hectares of land distributed by the year 2005. However this process has been very slow,” it said.
The report also dealt with issues such as evictions of farm workers, child labour, poor conditions of employment, violent crime against farm-dwellers, and the high level of alcohol abuse — some farmers continue to pay their labourers in alcohol. The report also found that low wages and abuse of workers by employers are common. It noted that ”trade unions highlighted the plight of some farm workers who live in deplorable conditions”.
There was a widespread lack of compliance with the legislative provisions of the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (Esta), said the report. Esta regulates eviction proceedings. The report said many farm-dwellers were being denied their Esta rights by being evicted in terms of common law.
Although there was a lack of research and statistics to establish the current prevalence of child labour in the country, the report said that it does still occur on farms.
The inquiry was launched in June 2001 by the then chairperson of the SAHRC, Barney Pityana. Its object was to determine whether human rights were being observed on farms, and to pinpoint any obstacles, in policy or enforcement, to the achievement of human rights for farm workers.
Housing department spokesperson Mandla Mathebula told the Mail & Guardian he had yet to read the report, but said the department could not build houses for farm workers on land not owned by them.
Abbey Makoe, chief director of communications in the Department of Land Affairs, told the M&G that his department could not be blamed for the lack of housing for farm workers. ”Our mandate is primarily to provide land, not houses, for the landless people,” he said.
The report also points to inadequacies in health-care provision in farming communities: ”It is a matter of concern that issues related to and information received on HIV/Aids was scant throughout the farming community.”
Other findings include lack of social security, shortage of sufficient food and water, and lack of access to basic education.
The report touches on attacks on farmers, without reaching definitive conclusions. Farm attacks were investigated by a committee set up by the late Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete in 2001. The report of the inquiry has yet to be released.