Cape Town - Parliament’s portfolio committee on agriculture, rural development and land reform will today begin a three-day joint oversight programme in the Western Cape to assess the living conditions of farm workers, farm dwellers and tenants in selected districts.
The oversight programme is being held jointly with the portfolio committee on employment and labour and follows Parliament’s resolution for the two committees to explore opportunities for legislative review aimed at improving the living and working conditions of farm workers, farm dwellers and farmers.
Agriculture portfolio committee chairperson Zwelivelile Mandela (ANC) will lead the Western Cape oversight programme which will cover the Cape West Coast and Cape Winelands district municipalities.
The committee will have engagements with stakeholders including the departments of labour and agriculture; traditional leaders and the CCMA and will also hold public hearings and conduct farm visits.
This morning’s stakeholder’s meeting will be held at Hex Valley Secondary School in De Doorns.
In the afternoon the committee will visit two farms, Meiringshoop and La Dauphine to learn about the employment and labour dynamics on farms.
Tomorrow the committee will travel to Wellington where they will address the issue of tenure security which involves living and working conditions on farms.
While in the area they will visit two farms, Soetendal in Wellington and Marlenique in Simondium.
In the afternoon they will travel to Paarl for public hearings followed by a public meeting with farming communities there.
On Sunday the committee will drive to Vredendal where it will perform site visits at two farms, Welverdien and Goedemoed, where they will examine living and working conditions.
Later they will travel to Van Rhynsdorp for a public meeting with farming communities at the Van Rhynsdorp Thusong Centre.
The visits come three months after the Women on Farms Project (WFP), led female farmworkers and dwellers on a march to the Paarl Magistrate’s Court and Drakenstein Municipality to demand an end to farm evictions.
WFP director Colette Solomon said the evicted farm dwellers had their access to basic services curtailed without following due process.
At a follow-up engagement around the crisis of farmworker evictions Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said his department had established the Legal Aid SA Land Rights Management Unit to assist farm dwellers in matters to do with eviction.
At the same time the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), will be embarking on a community outreach programme in Sandhills, De Doorns tomorrow.
UIF Western Cape operations head Siphokazi Qasana said the outreach would be used to provide same-day service to all unemployed clients applying for UIF benefits.
He said the community of De Doorns relied on the department’s satellite office and the labour centre in Worcester to access services.
“Due to the influx of clients visiting the offices, we are extending our services in order to relieve them of the travelling costs.”