MBOMBELA- A recent ministerial inspection of three farms around this area was an eye-opener to the continuous struggle faced by farmworkers.
Arriving at the compound, one would be forgiven for feeling like it could be a place where soldiers or immigrants lived. Six women and their children share a rondavel with one door and only an opening where a window should be.
Inside the rondavels things were scattered around, as the workers tried to fit their
belongings into the small space.They all depended on one pit latrine.
The management kept on assuring Oliphant and her team that place of upgrading the
farm were in place as they were busy building other shelters where the women would be moved to.
They also added that they had plans of reducing the number of people living in the
farms by introducing transport to ferry them from their homes to work.
Oliphant said, “The rondavels have no ventilation and hence, in terms of the Health
and Safety Act, they don’t comply.”
In some farms, farmworkers complained of having no union representatives. They were paid R2 400 which does not meet the minimum wage for farmworkers, which is R2 700.
“We still have to buy our own electricity from the little we get. Some have R90 deducted from their salary for a mere 25-kilogram bag mealie meal,” they said.
The provincial chief inspector, Ms Nonyaniso Njwambe, said there was a high level on non-compliance on all the farms.
Some were not complying in terms of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Labour Relations Act, and the Occupational Health and Safety Act, while others were not complying with the Compensation for Occupational Diseases and Injuries Act and Insurance funds.
“We issued them with notices for contravening the Acts and need the employer to rectify the non-compliance within a period of 14 days, 21 days or 60 days depending on the legislation they
had contravened,” she said.
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