A new powerful piece of legislation being piloted through the National Assembly by the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Gugile Nkwinti, is set to change the lives of the farm dwellers, as it seeks to protect farmworkers and dwellers against arbitrary and unlawful evictions by farmowners.
The Extension of Security of Tenure Amendment Bill will also proffer protection for farmowners.
This long overdue legislation is crafted in a way that will prevent cruelty to the most vulnerable members of the working class, the farmworkers.
History is replete with cases of unscrupulous farmowners booting workers off their farms without offering them alternative accommodation in compliance with accepted conventions of evictions.
Our courts have ruled against arbitrary farm evictions where alternative suitable shelter was not provided for the safety of such workers.
Some callous farmers have even expelled farmworkers when they were old and unable to work any longer.
These destitute and defenseless people have sometimes been dumped alongside the road and left to fend for themselves.
Some of these cases were picked up by human rights lawyers who would, pro bono, go to court to seek recourse for those ejected from farms with nowhere to go.
Many of these farmworkers have known no other place of abode, having been born and living on farms for their entire lives.
At the height of farm evictions, the present minister of rural development and land reform appointed a team to investigate.
Some farmers opposed to the land reform measures being undertaken saw fit to vent their anger against their workers by chasing them off the farms.
Although farmworkers do not share in the profits of the farming business, they do contribute to the 2% gross domestic product (GDP) generated by the farming sector by offering their labour.
Through their cheap labour they ensure that agricultural production happens on farms.
But there is always light at the end of a tunnel. Nkwinti, a rural development maestro, has successfully engineered his previously maligned 50/50 policy of the state assisting farmworkers to acquire a portion of the farm they worked on and to share in the profits and is implementing it.
Although this programme is still in its infancy, it has shown a great potential. Most rural farmers have latched onto the programme and teamed up with their workers – for the good of all and inevitably, our country.
The historical legacies of apartheid and colonialism which engineered the transfer of vast amounts of the country’s resources into the hands of European migrants continue to shape the socioeconomic conditions of the people of this country. High levels of poverty and rampant unemployment characterise many black communities.
Statistics SA have revealed that 63.02% of black people live below the poverty-line while only a tiny fraction – 0.09% – of their white counterparts are subject to the same predicament.
This inequality is also widespread in patterns of ownership. Land, property and human resources remain predominantly the preserve of white ownership.
The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform was created in tandem with the prescripts of the 1996 constitution to address the colonialism and apartheid legacy which still manifests itself in our land administration systems.
This department has made steady progress in overhauling the previous land-holding regime patterns by establishing institutions such as the Valuer-General which protects the state against sharks trying to inflate land prices when the state is involved in purchasing.
This new department has also promulgated the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act to reverse apartheid’s spatial planning of the country.
It has also kick-started the district land reform committees that will oversee the land reform process in their respective districts in line with the National Development Plan.
The Extension of Security of Tenure Amendment Bill, 2015, seeks to provide meaningful transformation through amending the Extension of Security of Tenure Act, 1997.
The Act provides security of tenure for farm dwellers (occupiers), mostly farmworkers and former farmworkers who reside, or resided, on farms owned by other persons, mostly commercial farmers.
The Bill aims to address inadequacies in relation to existing institutional arrangements and capacities in order to address the quality and scale of land rights conflicts and tenure insecurities found in commercial farming areas
In order to address this shortcoming the new law makes provision for the establishment of a Land Rights Management Board (LRMB) to serve as a stakeholder forum to institutionalise land rights management and land dispute resolution to promote the effective realisation of land tenure security among all the actors in freehold land tenure areas.
The Act also provides for the establishment of land rights management committees (LRMCs) at district level to strengthen participation in land reform and rural development processes. These LRMCs will also assist in resolving local land rights conflicts.
The new amended law will bring changes that will make it difficult for farmowners to eject farm dwellers willy-nilly.
To ensure that the rights of occupiers are not limited to the strictest definition of family, but include extended family members, the amended Bill has changed the definition of dependents and family.
The Bill also provides for tenure grants to ensure sustainable development on- or off-site of farms. Tenure grants will also ensure alternative accommodation for farmworkers and compensation to farmowners for providing accommodation.
The new law will also make legal representation compulsory in evictions proceedings unless waived or a court determines otherwise. In future the parties will have to go through a mediation and arbitration process before approaching the courts for evictions.
The Bill further stipulates that evictions must carried out in reasonable weather conditions. When this Act becomes law nobody will be allowed to boot farm dwellers off farms in inclement weather, storms or icy winter days included.
The new tenure law will give rights and duties to both farm dwellers and farmowners and make provision for dispute resolution mechanisms.
When this Bill is passed into law and promulgated by the government, it will improve social conditions on farms for both farm dwellers and owners because both parties will have a source of reference and legal recourse.
Mtobeli Mxotwa is a director of the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights. He writes for the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform
OPINION: New law will stop illegal farm evictions
The Extension of Security of Tenure Amendment Bill will also proffer protection for farmowners.
This long overdue legislation is crafted in a way that will prevent cruelty to the most vulnerable members of the working class, the farmworkers.
History is replete with cases of unscrupulous farmowners booting workers off their farms without offering them alternative accommodation in compliance with accepted conventions of evictions.
Our courts have ruled against arbitrary farm evictions where alternative suitable shelter was not provided for the safety of such workers.
Some callous farmers have even expelled farmworkers when they were old and unable to work any longer.
These destitute and defenseless people have sometimes been dumped alongside the road and left to fend for themselves.
Some of these cases were picked up by human rights lawyers who would, pro bono, go to court to seek recourse for those ejected from farms with nowhere to go.
Many of these farmworkers have known no other place of abode, having been born and living on farms for their entire lives.
At the height of farm evictions, the present minister of rural development and land reform appointed a team to investigate.
Some farmers opposed to the land reform measures being undertaken saw fit to vent their anger against their workers by chasing them off the farms.
Although farmworkers do not share in the profits of the farming business, they do contribute to the 2% gross domestic product (GDP) generated by the farming sector by offering their labour.
Through their cheap labour they ensure that agricultural production happens on farms.
But there is always light at the end of a tunnel. Nkwinti, a rural development maestro, has successfully engineered his previously maligned 50/50 policy of the state assisting farmworkers to acquire a portion of the farm they worked on and to share in the profits and is implementing it.
Although this programme is still in its infancy, it has shown a great potential. Most rural farmers have latched onto the programme and teamed up with their workers – for the good of all and inevitably, our country.
The historical legacies of apartheid and colonialism which engineered the transfer of vast amounts of the country’s resources into the hands of European migrants continue to shape the socioeconomic conditions of the people of this country. High levels of poverty and rampant unemployment characterise many black communities.
Statistics SA have revealed that 63.02% of black people live below the poverty-line while only a tiny fraction – 0.09% – of their white counterparts are subject to the same predicament.
This inequality is also widespread in patterns of ownership. Land, property and human resources remain predominantly the preserve of white ownership.
The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform was created in tandem with the prescripts of the 1996 constitution to address the colonialism and apartheid legacy which still manifests itself in our land administration systems.
This department has made steady progress in overhauling the previous land-holding regime patterns by establishing institutions such as the Valuer-General which protects the state against sharks trying to inflate land prices when the state is involved in purchasing.
This new department has also promulgated the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act to reverse apartheid’s spatial planning of the country.
It has also kick-started the district land reform committees that will oversee the land reform process in their respective districts in line with the National Development Plan.
The Extension of Security of Tenure Amendment Bill, 2015, seeks to provide meaningful transformation through amending the Extension of Security of Tenure Act, 1997.
The Act provides security of tenure for farm dwellers (occupiers), mostly farmworkers and former farmworkers who reside, or resided, on farms owned by other persons, mostly commercial farmers.
The Bill aims to address inadequacies in relation to existing institutional arrangements and capacities in order to address the quality and scale of land rights conflicts and tenure insecurities found in commercial farming areas
In order to address this shortcoming the new law makes provision for the establishment of a Land Rights Management Board (LRMB) to serve as a stakeholder forum to institutionalise land rights management and land dispute resolution to promote the effective realisation of land tenure security among all the actors in freehold land tenure areas.
The Act also provides for the establishment of land rights management committees (LRMCs) at district level to strengthen participation in land reform and rural development processes. These LRMCs will also assist in resolving local land rights conflicts.
The new amended law will bring changes that will make it difficult for farmowners to eject farm dwellers willy-nilly.
To ensure that the rights of occupiers are not limited to the strictest definition of family, but include extended family members, the amended Bill has changed the definition of dependents and family.
The Bill also provides for tenure grants to ensure sustainable development on- or off-site of farms. Tenure grants will also ensure alternative accommodation for farmworkers and compensation to farmowners for providing accommodation.
The new law will also make legal representation compulsory in evictions proceedings unless waived or a court determines otherwise. In future the parties will have to go through a mediation and arbitration process before approaching the courts for evictions.
The Bill further stipulates that evictions must carried out in reasonable weather conditions. When this Act becomes law nobody will be allowed to boot farm dwellers off farms in inclement weather, storms or icy winter days included.
The new tenure law will give rights and duties to both farm dwellers and farmowners and make provision for dispute resolution mechanisms.
When this Bill is passed into law and promulgated by the government, it will improve social conditions on farms for both farm dwellers and owners because both parties will have a source of reference and legal recourse.
Mtobeli Mxotwa is a director of the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights. He writes for the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform
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