EFF calls on farmworkers to attend public hearings on the living and working conditions on farms

22 April 2022

The EFF invites all victims of forced evictions from farms, farmworkers and farm dwellers currently living or working on farms to attend Parliament's Public Hearings to investigate the Living and Working Conditions of farmworkers, dwellers and their families.

The EFF in Parliament tabled a motion on the 5th of November 2020 for parliament to conduct investigations into the living and working conditions of farmworkers, farm dwellers and their families, who are either living on white owned farms as tenants or working there as dwellers. Parliament has thus established a joint investigation team consisting of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development and Employment and Labour portfolio committees.

This is a crucial victory to highlight the plight of farmworkers, farm dwellers and their destitute families, and give voice to them as the voiceless masses of our people. All of those affected must speak for themselves as the marginalised, dejected, and wretched of the earth, to whom freedom remains a distant dream.

EFF demands that South Africa and the world knows and recognises that if the living and working conditions of farmworkers are left as they are, then freedom and democracy will continue to elude this section of the South African population, with devastating impacts for peace and civil relations on farms.

This process represents a cogent demonstration of the EFF’s superior logic, and its decisive ideological and political guidance of all struggles affecting black people and the working class in South Africa. The public hearings build on many victories of the EFF which include the parliamentary process to amend section 25 of the Constitution to permit for expropriation of land without compensation which has been aborted by the ANC.

Public hearings have been scheduled to start from the 29th April 2022 in Gauteng, and will continue to other provinces up until the 12 June 2022. We urge activists, labour unions and others involved with farmworkers to ensure that there is full participation at these hearings.

Issued by Sinawo Thambo, National Spokesperson, EFF, 22 April 2022