Media statement from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on the Human Rights Watch Report
23 Aug 2011
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has noted and welcomed the Human Rights Watch Report released today on the working conditions of the farmworkers in the fruit and wine industry in the Western Cape.
The 96 page report, released this morning in Cape Town, titled South Africa: Farmworkers' Dismal, Dangerous Lives - Workers Protected by Law, but not in the Fields, is a detailed record of the seemingly gross violations of the human and labour rights of the vulnerable farmworkers. The ministry is repulsed at the conditions under which some of the farmworkers in the Western Cape reportedly live on the farms.
The ministry has invited the author of the Report to the MinMEC (a forum of the Minister and the provincial MECs) hosted by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ms Tina Joemat-Pettersson, on Thursday, 25 August in Cape Town, to get a briefing on the methodology, findings and the recommendations of Human Rights Watch.
"We welcome the extensive research done by Human Rights Watch and I, together with some of my Cabinet colleagues, will soon undertake a visit to the affected farms to see for ourselves the conditions under which some farmworkers and dwellers live and work as soon as we have finished studying the report. The report affects various departments including Labour, Human Settlements, Rural Development and Land Reform, and therefore, as government, we must formulate a collective response to the findings and the recommendations of the report," Joemat-Petttersson said.
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) hosted a Vulnerable Workers' Summit last year July in Somerset West, Cape Town, together with organised labour and civil society to address the critical need to build good working relations and improve the living conditions of the vulnerable workers within the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors.
The summit was divided into four commissions which centred on four themes: the social determinants of health, working conditions, security of tenure and empowerment and training for the vulnerable workers.
Some of the progress achieved following the Somerset West Summit include, inter alia, the building of four agri-villages for workers (two for agriculture, one for forestry and the other one for fisheries), promotion of wellness and the reduction of HIV vulnerability amongst the vulnerable workers, conducting of workshops on substance abuse and the establishment of the community policing forums on farms as well as the establishment of mobile police stations.
"We have initiated a process of changing the lives of the vulnerable workers together with our sister departments. This is work in progress and we will ensure that we incorporate the findings and the recommendations of the Human Rights Watch Report in the implementation of the resolutions we adopted at the Vulnerable Workers' Summit in Somerset West last year," Joemat-Pettersson said.
Statement issued by Selby Bokaba, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, August 23 2011
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