A report, recently released by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), has highlighted the appalling conditions faced by South African farm workers.
The report was the result of an inquiry launched by the SAHRC in June 2001, in response to an increasing number of reports of brutality towards farm workers, execrable working and living conditions on farms, child labour practices and the ongoing murder of farmers.
The historical background to the deplorable conditions endured by South African farm workers lies generally in South Africa’s history of colonial conquest and dispossession of indigenous people, but more particularly in the 1913 Natives Land Act. This piece of legislation outlawed the ownership of land by blacks in areas designated for white ownership. Essentially, it solidified the distribution of land that emerged from the era of colonial wars against indigenous tribes and polities. It further sought to roll back black ownership of land in certain areas. The outcome was that 87 percent of land became white owned, whilst blacks were relegated to the remaining 13 percent.
According to the SAHRC report, an estimated 1.4 million people were evicted from farms in South Africa between 1950 and 1980. In 1997 the South African government promulgated the Extension of Security of Tenure Act (ESTA), aimed at protecting occupants of rural land from arbitrary evictions.
Source: World Socialist Web
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